Hierarchical Processing for a Virtual Directory System for LDAP to SCIM Proxy Service

ABSTRACT

A method for hierarchically processing LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) operations against a SCIM (System for Cross-domain Identity Management) directory is provided. The method includes providing an LDAP Directory Information Tree (DIT) including a plurality of LDAP DIT entries that describe LDAP containers, users and groups, providing a SCIM directory including a plurality of SCIM resource entries that describe SCIM users and groups, migrating the plurality of LDAP DIT entries to the SCIM directory, receiving, from an LDAP-based application over a network, an LDAP operation request, processing the LDAP operation request, and returning an LDAP operation response to the LDAP-based application over the network.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Patent Application Ser. No.62/395,405 (filed on Sep. 16, 2016), 62/376,069 (filed on Aug. 17,2016), and 62/371,336 (filed on Aug. 5, 2016), the disclosures of whichare hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

FIELD

One embodiment is directed generally to identity management, and inparticular, to identity management in a cloud-based system.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Generally, the use of cloud based applications (e.g., enterprise publiccloud applications, third party cloud applications, etc.) is soaring,with access coming from a variety of devices (e.g., desktop and mobiledevices) and a variety of users (e.g., employees, partners, customers,etc.). The abundant diversity and accessibility of cloud basedapplications has led access security to become a central concern.Typical security concerns in a cloud environment are unauthorizedaccess, account hijacking, malicious insiders, etc. Accordingly, thereis a need for secure access to cloud based applications, or applicationslocated anywhere, regardless of from what device type or by what usertype the applications are accessed.

SUMMARY

Embodiments provide a system and methods that implement a number ofmicroservices in a stateless middle tier to provide cloud basedmulti-tenant identity and access management services.

In certain embodiments, a method for processing LDAP (LightweightDirectory Access Protocol) operations against a SCIM (System forCross-domain Identity Management) directory is provided. The methodincludes providing an LDAP Directory Information Tree (DIT) including aplurality of LDAP DIT entries that describe LDAP containers, users andgroups, providing a SCIM directory including a plurality of SCIMresource entries that describe SCIM users and groups, migrating theplurality of LDAP DIT entries to the SCIM directory, receiving, from anLDAP-based application over a network, an LDAP operation request,processing the LDAP operation request, and returning an LDAP operationresponse to the LDAP-based application over the network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1-5 are block diagrams of example embodiments that providecloud-based identity management.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram providing a system view of an embodiment.

FIG. 6A is a block diagram providing a functional view of an embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an embodiment that implements Cloud Gate.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example system that implements multiple tenanciesin one embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a network view of an embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a system architecture view of single signon (“SSO”) functionality in one embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a message sequence flow of SSO functionality in oneembodiment.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example of a distributed data grid in oneembodiment.

FIG. 13 depicts an LDAP to SCIM proxy service architecture, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 14A to A4I present a method for providing an LDAP to SCIM proxyservice, in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 15 presents a diagram of an on-premises LDAP backend, in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 16A, 16B and 16C present a graphical user interface for an IDCSadministrator console, in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 17 presents a graphical user interface for a directory servicesmanager application, in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIGS. 18A to 18E present a method for providing an on-premises virtualdirectory system, in accordance with embodiments of the presentinvention.

FIG. 19 presents an LDAP tree structure, in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 20A to 20K present a method 2000 for hierarchical processing ofLDAP operations against a SCIM directory, in accordance with embodimentsof the present invention.

FIG. 21 presents exemplary SCIM attributes of a user, in accordance withan embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 22 depicts one-to-one mapping for simple, simple multi-valued, andsimple complex attributes between SCIM and LDAP, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 23 depicts usage of LDAP subtype to map between SCIM and LDAP data,in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 24 depicts usage of LDAP subtype (with “type” sub-attribute) toachieve mapping between SCIM and LDAP data, in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide an identity cloud servicethat implements a microservices based architecture and providesmulti-tenant identity and data security management and secure access tocloud based applications. Embodiments support secure access for hybridcloud deployments (i.e., cloud deployments which include a combinationof a public cloud and a private cloud). Embodiments protect applicationsand data both in the cloud and on-premise. Embodiments supportmulti-channel access via web, mobile, and application programminginterfaces (“APIs”). Embodiments manage access for different users, suchas customers, partners, and employees. Embodiments manage, control, andaudit access across the cloud as well as on-premise. Embodimentsintegrate with new and existing applications and identities. Embodimentsare horizontally scalable.

Embodiments of the present invention provide a system and methods thatimplement a number of microservices in a stateless middle tierenvironment to provide cloud based multi-tenant identity and accessmanagement services. In certain embodiments, each requested identitymanagement service is broken into real-time and near real-time tasks.The real-time tasks are handled by a microservice in the middle tier,while the near real-time tasks are offloaded to a message queue.Embodiments of the present invention implement access tokens that areconsumed by a routing tier and a middle tier to enforce a security modelfor accessing the microservices. Accordingly, embodiments provide acloud-scale Identity and Access Management (“IAM”) platform based on amulti-tenant, microservices architecture.

In certain hybrid cloud deployments, identities are first migrated froman on-premises LDAP server to an IDCS SCIM server. Legacy on-premisesLDAP-based applications then access these identities in the IDCS SCIMserver through an intermediary or proxy service. In certain embodiments,an LDAP to SCIM proxy service allows legacy LDAP-based applications tointeract seamlessly with the IDCS SCIM server. Newly-deployedon-premises SCIM-based applications may access the IDCS SCIM serverdirectly, as well as those legacy on-premises LDAP-based applicationsthat have been re-written to support SCIM. In a hybrid cloud deployment,the LDAP to SCIM proxy service advantageously provides a single sourceof truth for identities, and avoids the complexities, disadvantages andlimitations of identity federation and/or synchronizationconfigurations.

In certain embodiments, a method for processing LDAP (LightweightDirectory Access Protocol) operations against a SCIM (System forCross-domain Identity Management) directory providing an LDAP DirectoryInformation Tree (DIT) including a plurality of LDAP DIT entries thatdescribe LDAP containers, users and groups, providing a SCIM directoryincluding a plurality of SCIM resource entries that describe SCIM usersand groups, migrating the plurality of LDAP DIT entries to the SCIMdirectory, receiving, from an LDAP-based application over a network, anLDAP operation request, processing the LDAP operation request, andreturning an LDAP operation response to the LDAP-based application overthe network.

Unified Security of Access

One embodiment protects applications and data in a cloud environment aswell as in an on-premise environment. The embodiment secures access toany application from any device by anyone. The embodiment providesprotection across both environments since inconsistencies in securitybetween the two environments may result in higher risks. For example,such inconsistencies may cause a sales person to continue having accessto their Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) account even afterthey have defected to the competition. Accordingly, embodiments extendthe security controls provisioned in the on-premise environment into thecloud environment. For example, if a person leaves a company,embodiments ensure that their accounts are disabled both on-premise andin the cloud.

Generally, users may access applications and/or data through manydifferent channels such as web browsers, desktops, mobile phones,tablets, smart watches, other wearables, etc. Accordingly, oneembodiment provides secured access across all these channels. Forexample, a user may use their mobile phone to complete a transactionthey started on their desktop.

One embodiment further manages access for various users such ascustomers, partners, employees, etc. Generally, applications and/or datamay be accessed not just by employees but by customers or third parties.Although many known systems take security measures when onboardingemployees, they generally do not take the same level of securitymeasures when giving access to customers, third parties, partners, etc.,resulting in the possibility of security breaches by parties that arenot properly managed. However, embodiments ensure that sufficientsecurity measures are provided for access of each type of user and notjust employees.

Identity Cloud Service

Embodiments provide an Identity Cloud Service (“IDCS”) that is amulti-tenant, cloud-scale, IAM platform. IDCS provides authentication,authorization, auditing, and federation. IDCS manages access to customapplications and services running on the public cloud, and on-premisesystems. In an alternative or additional embodiment, IDCS may alsomanage access to public cloud services. For example, IDCS can be used toprovide Single Sign On (“SSO”) functionality across such variety ofservices/applications/systems.

Embodiments are based on a multi-tenant, microservices architecture fordesigning, building, and delivering cloud-scale software services.Multi-tenancy refers to having one physical implementation of a servicesecurely supporting multiple customers buying that service. A service isa software functionality or a set of software functionalities (such asthe retrieval of specified information or the execution of a set ofoperations) that can be reused by different clients for differentpurposes, together with the policies that control its usage (e.g., basedon the identity of the client requesting the service). In oneembodiment, a service is a mechanism to enable access to one or morecapabilities, where the access is provided using a prescribed interfaceand is exercised consistent with constraints and policies as specifiedby the service description.

In one embodiment, a microservice is an independently deployableservice. In one embodiment, the term microservice contemplates asoftware architecture design pattern in which complex applications arecomposed of small, independent processes communicating with each otherusing language-agnostic APIs. In one embodiment, microservices aresmall, highly decoupled services and each may focus on doing a smalltask. In one embodiment, the microservice architectural style is anapproach to developing a single application as a suite of smallservices, each running in its own process and communicating withlightweight mechanisms (e.g., an HTTP resource API). In one embodiment,microservices are easier to replace relative to a monolithic servicethat performs all or many of the same functions. Moreover, each of themicroservices may be updated without adversely affecting the othermicroservices. In contrast, updates to one portion of a monolithicservice may undesirably or unintentionally negatively affect the otherportions of the monolithic service. In one embodiment, microservices maybe beneficially organized around their capabilities. In one embodiment,the startup time for each of a collection of microservices is much lessthan the startup time for a single application that collectivelyperforms all the services of those microservices. In some embodiments,the startup time for each of such microservices is about one second orless, while the startup time of such single application may be about aminute, several minutes, or longer.

In one embodiment, microservices architecture refers to a specialization(i.e., separation of tasks within a system) and implementation approachfor service oriented architectures (“SOAs”) to build flexible,independently deployable software systems. Services in a microservicesarchitecture are processes that communicate with each other over anetwork in order to fulfill a goal. In one embodiment, these servicesuse technology-agnostic protocols. In one embodiment, the services havea small granularity and use lightweight protocols. In one embodiment,the services are independently deployable. By distributingfunctionalities of a system into different small services, the cohesionof the system is enhanced and the coupling of the system is decreased.This makes it easier to change the system and add functions andqualities to the system at any time. It also allows the architecture ofan individual service to emerge through continuous refactoring, andhence reduces the need for a big up-front design and allows forreleasing software early and continuously.

In one embodiment, in the microservices architecture, an application isdeveloped as a collection of services, and each service runs arespective process and uses a lightweight protocol to communicate (e.g.,a unique API for each microservice). In the microservices architecture,decomposition of a software into individual services/capabilities can beperformed at different levels of granularity depending on the service tobe provided. A service is a runtime component/process. Each microserviceis a self-contained module that can talk to other modules/microservices.Each microservice has an unnamed universal port that can be contacted byothers. In one embodiment, the unnamed universal port of a microserviceis a standard communication channel that the microservice exposes byconvention (e.g., as a conventional Hypertext Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”)port) and that allows any other module/microservice within the sameservice to talk to it. A microservice or any other self-containedfunctional module can be generically referred to as a “service”.

Embodiments provide multi-tenant identity management services.Embodiments are based on open standards to ensure ease of integrationwith various applications, delivering IAM capabilities throughstandards-based services.

Embodiments manage the lifecycle of user identities which entails thedetermination and enforcement of what an identity can access, who can begiven such access, who can manage such access, etc. Embodiments run theidentity management workload in the cloud and support securityfunctionality for applications that are not necessarily in the cloud.The identity management services provided by the embodiments may bepurchased from the cloud. For example, an enterprise may purchase suchservices from the cloud to manage their employees' access to theirapplications.

Embodiments provide system security, massive scalability, end userusability, and application interoperability. Embodiments address thegrowth of the cloud and the use of identity services by customers. Themicroservices based foundation addresses horizontal scalabilityrequirements, while careful orchestration of the services addresses thefunctional requirements. Achieving both goals requires decomposition(wherever possible) of the business logic to achieve statelessness witheventual consistency, while much of the operational logic not subject toreal-time processing is shifted to near-real-time by offloading to ahighly scalable asynchronous event management system with guaranteeddelivery and processing. Embodiments are fully multi-tenant from the webtier to the data tier in order to realize cost efficiencies and ease ofsystem administration.

Embodiments are based on industry standards (e.g., OpenID Connect,OAuth2, Security Assertion Markup Language 2 (“SAML2”), System forCross-domain Identity Management (“SCIM”), Representational StateTransfer (“REST”), etc.) for ease of integration with variousapplications. One embodiment provides a cloud-scale API platform andimplements horizontally scalable microservices for elastic scalability.The embodiment leverages cloud principles and provides a multi-tenantarchitecture with per-tenant data separation. The embodiment furtherprovides per-tenant customization via tenant self-service. Theembodiment is available via APIs for on-demand integration with otheridentity services, and provides continuous feature release.

One embodiment provides interoperability and leverages investments inidentity management (“IDM”) functionality in the cloud and on-premise.The embodiment provides automated identity synchronization fromon-premise Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (“LDAP”) data to clouddata and vice versa. The embodiment provides a SCIM identity bus betweenthe cloud and the enterprise, and allows for different options forhybrid cloud deployments (e.g., identity federation and/orsynchronization, SSO agents, user provisioning connectors, etc.).

Accordingly, one embodiment is a system that implements a number ofmicroservices in a stateless middle tier to provide cloud-basedmulti-tenant identity and access management services. In one embodiment,each requested identity management service is broken into real-time andnear-real-time tasks. The real-time tasks are handled by a microservicein the middle tier, while the near-real-time tasks are offloaded to amessage queue. Embodiments implement tokens that are consumed by arouting tier to enforce a security model for accessing themicroservices. Accordingly, embodiments provide a cloud-scale IAMplatform based on a multi-tenant, microservices architecture.

Generally, known systems provide siloed access to applications providedby different environments, e.g., enterprise cloud applications, partnercloud applications, third-party cloud applications, and customerapplications. Such siloed access may require multiple passwords,different password policies, different account provisioning andde-provisioning schemes, disparate audit, etc. However, one embodimentimplements IDCS to provide unified IAM functionality over suchapplications. FIG. 1 is a block diagram 100 of an example embodimentwith IDCS 118, providing a unified identity platform 126 for onboardingusers and applications. The embodiment provides seamless user experienceacross various applications such as enterprise cloud applications 102,partner cloud applications 104, third-party cloud applications 110, andcustomer applications 112. Applications 102, 104, 110, 112 may beaccessed through different channels, for example, by a mobile phone user108 via a mobile phone 106, by a desktop computer user 116 via a browser114, etc. A web browser (commonly referred to as a browser) is asoftware application for retrieving, presenting, and traversinginformation resources on the World Wide Web. Examples of web browsersare Mozilla Firefox®, Google Chrome®, Microsoft Internet Explorer®, andApple Safari®.

IDCS 118 provides a unified view 124 of a user's applications, a unifiedsecure credential across devices and applications (via identity platform126), and a unified way of administration (via an admin console 122).IDCS services may be obtained by calling IDCS APIs 142. Such servicesmay include, for example, login/SSO services 128 (e.g., OpenID Connect),federation services 130 (e.g., SAML), token services 132 (e.g., OAuth),directory services 134 (e.g., SCIM), provisioning services 136 (e.g.,SCIM or Any Transport over Multiprotocol (“AToM”)), event services 138(e.g., REST), and role-based access control (“RBAC”) services 140 (e.g.,SCIM). IDCS 118 may further provide reports and dashboards 120 relatedto the offered services.

Integration Tools

Generally, it is common for large corporations to have an IAM system inplace to secure access to their on-premise applications. Businesspractices are usually matured and standardized around an in-house IAMsystem such as “Oracle IAM Suite” from Oracle Corp. Even small to mediumorganizations usually have their business processes designed aroundmanaging user access through a simple directory solution such asMicrosoft Active Directory (“AD”). To enable on-premise integration,embodiments provide tools that allow customers to integrate theirapplications with IDCS.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram 200 of an example embodiment with IDCS 202 ina cloud environment 208, providing integration with an AD 204 that ison-premise 206. The embodiment provides seamless user experience acrossall applications including on-premise and third-party applications, forexample, on-premise applications 218 and various applications/servicesin cloud 208 such as cloud services 210, cloud applications 212, partnerapplications 214, and customer applications 216. Cloud applications 212may include, for example, Human Capital Management (“HCM”), CRM, talentacquisition (e.g., Oracle Taleo cloud service from Oracle Corp.),Configure Price and Quote (“CPQ”), etc. Cloud services 210 may include,for example, Platform as a Service (“PaaS”), Java, database, businessintelligence (“BI”), documents, etc.

Applications 210, 212, 214, 216, 218, may be accessed through differentchannels, for example, by a mobile phone user 220 via a mobile phone222, by a desktop computer user 224 via a browser 226, etc. Theembodiment provides automated identity synchronization from on-premiseAD data to cloud data via a SCIM identity bus 234 between cloud 208 andthe enterprise 206. The embodiment further provides a SAML bus 228 forfederating authentication from cloud 208 to on-premise AD 204 (e.g.,using passwords 232).

Generally, an identity bus is a service bus for identity relatedservices. A service bus provides a platform for communicating messagesfrom one system to another system. It is a controlled mechanism forexchanging information between trusted systems, for example, in aservice oriented architecture (“SOA”). An identity bus is a logical busbuilt according to standard HTTP based mechanisms such as web service,web server proxies, etc. The communication in an identity bus may beperformed according to a respective protocol (e.g., SCIM, SAML, OpenIDConnect, etc.). For example, a SAML bus is an HTTP based connectionbetween two systems for communicating messages for SAML services.Similarly, a SCIM bus is used to communicate SCIM messages according tothe SCIM protocol.

The embodiment of FIG. 2 implements an identity (“ID”) bridge 230 thatis a small binary (e.g., 1 MB in size) that can be downloaded andinstalled on-premise 206 alongside a customer's AD 204. ID Bridge 230listens to users and groups (e.g., groups of users) from theorganizational units (“OUs”) chosen by the customer and synchronizesthose users to cloud 208. In one embodiment, users' passwords 232 arenot synchronized to cloud 208. Customers can manage application accessfor users by mapping IDCS users' groups to cloud applications managed inIDCS 208. Whenever the users' group membership is changed on-premise206, their corresponding cloud application access changes automatically.

For example, an employee moving from engineering to sales can get nearinstantaneous access to the sales cloud and lose access to the developercloud. When this change is reflected in on-premise AD 204, cloudapplication access change is accomplished in near-real-time. Similarly,access to cloud applications managed in IDCS 208 is revoked for usersleaving the company. For full automation, customers may set up SSObetween on-premise AD 204 and IDCS 208 through, e.g., AD federationservice (“AD/FS”, or some other mechanism that implements SAMLfederation) so that end users can get access to cloud applications 210,212, 214, 216, and on-premise applications 218 with a single corporatepassword 332.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram 300 of an example embodiment that includes thesame components 202, 206, 208, 210, 212, 214, 216, 218, 220, 222, 224,226, 228, 234 as in FIG. 2. However, in the embodiment of FIG. 3, IDCS202 provides integration with an on-premise IDM 304 such as Oracle IDM.Oracle IDM 304 is a software suite from Oracle Corp. for providing IAMfunctionality. The embodiment provides seamless user experience acrossall applications including on-premise and third-party applications. Theembodiment provisions user identities from on-premise IDM 304 to IDCS208 via SCIM identity bus 234 between cloud 202 and enterprise 206. Theembodiment further provides SAML bus 228 (or an OpeniD Connect bus) forfederating authentication from cloud 208 to on-premise 206.

In the embodiment of FIG. 3, an Oracle Identity Manager (“OIM”)Connector 302 from Oracle Corp., and an Oracle Access Manager (“OAM”)federation module 306 from Oracle Corp., are implemented as extensionmodules of Oracle IDM 304. A connector is a module that has physicalawareness about how to talk to a system. OIM is an applicationconfigured to manage user identities (e.g., manage user accounts indifferent systems based on what a user should and should not have accessto). OAM is a security application that provides access managementfunctionality such as web SSO; identity context, authentication andauthorization; policy administration; testing; logging; auditing; etc.OAM has built-in support for SAML. If a user has an account in IDCS 202,OIM connector 302 and OAM federation 306 can be used with Oracle IDM 304to create/delete that account and manage access from that account.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram 400 of an example embodiment that includes thesame components 202, 206, 208, 210, 212, 214, 216, 218, 220, 222, 224,226, 234 as in FIGS. 2 and 3. However, in the embodiment of FIG. 4, IDCS202 provides functionality to extend cloud identities to on-premiseapplications 218. The embodiment provides seamless view of the identityacross all applications including on-premise and third-partyapplications. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, SCIM identity bus 234 is usedto synchronize data in IDCS 202 with on-premise LDAP data called “CloudCache” 402. Cloud Cache 402 is disclosed in more detail below.

Generally, an application that is configured to communicate based onLDAP needs an LDAP connection. An LDAP connection may not be establishedby such application through a URL (unlike, e.g., “www.google.com” thatmakes a connection to Google) since the LDAP needs to be on a localnetwork. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, an LDAP-based application 218makes a connection to Cloud Cache 402, and Cloud Cache 402 establishes aconnection to IDCS 202 and then pulls data from IDCS 202 as it is beingrequested. The communication between IDCS 202 and Cloud Cache 402 may beimplemented according to the SCIM protocol. For example, Cloud Cache 402may use SCIM bus 234 to send a SCIM request to IDCS 202 and receivecorresponding data in return.

Generally, fully implementing an application includes building aconsumer portal, running marketing campaigns on the external userpopulation, supporting web and mobile channels, and dealing with userauthentication, sessions, user profiles, user groups, application roles,password policies, self-service/registration, social integration,identity federation, etc. Generally, application developers are notidentity/security experts. Therefore, on-demand identity managementservices are desired.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram 500 of an example embodiment that includes thesame components 202, 220, 222, 224, 226, 234, 402, as in FIGS. 2-4.However, in the embodiment of FIG. 5, IDCS 202 provides secure identitymanagement on demand. The embodiment provides on demand integration withidentity services of IDCS 202 (e.g., based on standards such as OpenIDConnect, OAuth2, SAML2, or SCIM). Applications 505 (which may beon-premise, in a public cloud, or in a private cloud) may call identityservice APIs 504 in IDCS 202. The services provided by IDCS 202 mayinclude, for example, self-service registration 506, password management508, user profile management 510, user authentication 512, tokenmanagement 514, social integration 516, etc.

In this embodiment, SCIM identity bus 234 is used to synchronize data inIDCS 202 with data in on-premise LDAP Cloud Cache 402. Further, a “CloudGate” 502 running on a web server/proxy (e.g., NGINX, Apache, etc.) maybe used by applications 505 to obtain user web SSO and REST API securityfrom IDCS 202. Cloud Gate 502 is a component that secures access tomulti-tenant IDCS microservices by ensuring that client applicationsprovide valid access tokens, and/or users successfully authenticate inorder to establish SSO sessions. Cloud Gate 502 is further disclosedbelow. Cloud Gate 502 (enforcement point similar to webgate/webagent)enables applications running behind supported web servers to participatein SSO.

One embodiment provides SSO and cloud SSO functionality. A general pointof entry for both on-premise IAM and IDCS in many organizations is SSO.Cloud SSO enables users to access multiple cloud resources with a singleuser sign-in. Often, organizations will want to federate theiron-premise identities. Accordingly, embodiments utilize open standardsto allow for integration with existing SSO to preserve and extendinvestment (e.g., until a complete, eventual transition to an identitycloud service approach is made).

One embodiment may provide the following functionalities:

-   -   maintain an identity store to track user accounts, ownership,        access, and permissions that have been authorized,    -   integrate with workflow to facilitate various approvals (e.g.,        management, IT, human resources, legal, and compliance) needed        for applications access,    -   provision SaaS user accounts for selective devices (e.g., mobile        and personal computer (“PC”)) with access to user portal        containing many private and public cloud resources, and    -   facilitate periodic management attestation review for compliance        with regulations and current job responsibilities.

In addition to these functions, embodiments may further provide:

-   -   cloud account provisioning to manage account life cycle in cloud        applications,    -   more robust multifactor authentication (“MFA”) integration,    -   extensive mobile security capabilities, and    -   dynamic authentication options.

One embodiment provides adaptive authentication and MFA. Generally,passwords and challenge questions have been seen as inadequate andsusceptible to common attacks such as phishing. Most business entitiestoday are looking at some form of MFA to reduce risk. To be successfullydeployed, however, solutions need to be easily provisioned, maintained,and understood by the end user, as end users usually resist anythingthat interferes with their digital experience. Companies are looking forways to securely incorporate bring your own device (“BYOD”), socialidentities, remote users, customers, and contractors, while making MFAan almost transparent component of a seamless user access experience.Within an MFA deployment, industry standards such as OAuth and OpenIDConnect are essential to ensure integration of existing multifactorsolutions and the incorporation of newer, adaptive authenticationtechnology. Accordingly, embodiments define dynamic (or adaptive)authentication as the evaluation of available information (i.e., IPaddress, location, time of day, and biometrics) to prove an identityafter a user session has been initiated. With the appropriate standards(e.g., open authentication (“OATH”) and fast identity online (“FIDO”))integration and extensible identity management framework, embodimentsprovide MFA solutions that can be adopted, upgraded, and integratedeasily within an IT organization as part of an end-to-end secure IAMdeployment. When considering MFA and adaptive policies, organizationsmust implement consistent policies across on-premise and cloudresources, which in a hybrid IDCS and on-premise IAM environmentrequires integration between systems.

One embodiment provides user provisioning and certification. Generally,the fundamental function of an IAM solution is to enable and support theentire user provisioning life cycle. This includes providing users withthe application access appropriate for their identity and role withinthe organization, certifying that they have the correct ongoing accesspermissions (e.g., as their role or the tasks or applications usedwithin their role change over time), and promptly de-provisioning themas their departure from the organization may require. This is importantnot only for meeting various compliance requirements but also becauseinappropriate insider access is a major source of security breaches andattacks. An automated user provisioning capability within an identitycloud solution can be important not only in its own right but also aspart of a hybrid IAM solution whereby IDCS provisioning may providegreater flexibility than an on-premise solution for transitions as acompany downsizes, upsizes, merges, or looks to integrate existingsystems with IaaS/PaaS/SaaS environments. An IDCS approach can save timeand effort in one-off upgrades and ensure appropriate integration amongnecessary departments, divisions, and systems. The need to scale thistechnology often sneaks up on corporations, and the ability to deliver ascalable IDCS capability immediately across the enterprise can providebenefits in flexibility, cost, and control.

Generally, an employee is granted additional privileges (i.e.,“privilege creep”) over the years as her/his job changes. Companies thatare lightly regulated generally lack an “attestation” process thatrequires managers to regularly audit their employees' privileges (e.g.,access to networks, servers, applications, and data) to halt or slow theprivilege creep that results in over-privileged accounts. Accordingly,one embodiment may provide a regularly conducted (at least once a year)attestation process. Further, with mergers and acquisitions, the needfor these tools and services increases exponentially as users are onSaaS systems, on-premise, span different departments, and/or are beingde-provisioned or re-allocated. The move to cloud can further confusethis situation, and things can quickly escalate beyond existing, oftenmanually managed, certification methods. Accordingly, one embodimentautomates these functions and applies sophisticated analytics to userprofiles, access history, provisioning/de-provisioning, and fine-grainedentitlements.

One embodiment provides identity analytics. Generally, the ability tointegrate identity analytics with the IAM engine for comprehensivecertification and attestation can be critical to securing anorganization's risk profile. Properly deployed identity analytics candemand total internal policy enforcement. Identity analytics thatprovide a unified single management view across cloud and on-premise aremuch needed in a proactive governance, risk, and compliance (“GRC”)enterprise environment, and can aid in providing a closed-loop processfor reducing risk and meeting compliance regulations. Accordingly, oneembodiment provides identity analytics that are easily customizable bythe client to accommodate specific industry demands and governmentregulations for reports and analysis required by managers, executives,and auditors.

One embodiment provides self-service and access request functionality toimprove the experience and efficiency of the end user and to reducecosts from help desk calls. Generally, while a number of companiesdeploy on-premise self-service access request for their employees, manyhave not extended these systems adequately outside the formal corporatewalls. Beyond employee use, a positive digital customer experienceincreases business credibility and ultimately contributes to revenueincrease, and companies not only save on customer help desk calls andcosts but also improve customer satisfaction. Accordingly, oneembodiment provides an identity cloud service environment that is basedon open standards and seamlessly integrates with existing access controlsoftware and MFA mechanisms when necessary. The SaaS delivery modelsaves time and effort formerly devoted to systems upgrades andmaintenance, freeing professional IT staff to focus on more corebusiness applications.

One embodiment provides privileged account management (“PAM”).Generally, every organization, whether using SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, oron-premise applications, is vulnerable to unauthorized privilegedaccount abuse by insiders with super-user access credentials such assystem administrators, executives, HR officers, contractors, systemsintegrators, etc. Moreover, outside threats typically first breach alow-level user account to eventually reach and exploit privileged useraccess controls within the enterprise system. Accordingly, oneembodiment provides PAM to prevent such unauthorized insider accountuse. The main component of a PAM solution is a password vault which maybe delivered in various ways, e.g., as software to be installed on anenterprise server, as a virtual appliance also on an enterprise server,as a packaged hardware/software appliance, or as part of a cloudservice. PAM functionality is similar to a physical safe used to storepasswords kept in an envelope and changed periodically, with a manifestfor signing them in and out. One embodiment allows for a passwordcheckout as well as setting time limits, forcing periodic changes,automatically tracking checkout, and reporting on all activities. Oneembodiment provides a way to connect directly through to a requestedresource without the user ever knowing the password. This capabilityalso paves the way for session management and additional functionality.

Generally, most cloud services utilize APIs and administrativeinterfaces, which provide opportunities for infiltrators to circumventsecurity. Accordingly, one embodiment accounts for these holes in PAMpractices as the move to the cloud presents new challenges for PAM. Manysmall to medium sized businesses now administer their own SaaS systems(e.g., Office 365), while larger companies increasingly have individualbusiness units spinning up their own SaaS and IaaS services. Thesecustomers find themselves with PAM capabilities within the identitycloud service solutions or from their IaaS/PaaS provider but with littleexperience in handling this responsibility. Moreover, in some cases,many different geographically dispersed business units are trying tosegregate administrative responsibilities for the same SaaSapplications. Accordingly, one embodiment allows customers in thesesituations to link existing PAM into the overall identity framework ofthe identity cloud service and move toward greater security andcompliance with the assurance of scaling to cloud load requirements asbusiness needs dictate.

API Platform

Embodiments provide an API platform that exposes a collection ofcapabilities as services. The APIs are aggregated into microservices andeach microservice exposes one or more of the APIs. That is, eachmicroservice may expose different types of APIs. In one embodiment, eachmicroservice communicates only through its APIs. In one embodiment, eachAPI may be a microservice. In one embodiment, multiple APIs areaggregated into a service based on a target capability to be provided bythat service (e.g., OAuth, SAML, Admin, etc.). As a result, similar APIsare not exposed as separate runtime processes. The APIs are what is madeavailable to a service consumer to use the services provided by IDCS.

Generally, in the web environment of IDCS, a URL includes three parts: ahost, a microservice, and a resource (e.g., host/microservice/resource).In one embodiment, the microservice is characterized by having aspecific URL prefix, e.g., “host/oauth/v1” where the actual microserviceis “oauth/v1”, and under “oauth/v1” there are multiple APIs, e.g., anAPI to request tokens: “host/oauth/v1/token”, an API to authenticate auser: “host/oauth/v1/authorize”, etc. That is, the URL implements amicroservice, and the resource portion of the URL implements an API.Accordingly, multiple APIs are aggregated under the same microservice.In one embodiment, the host portion of the URL identifies a tenant(e.g., https://tenant3.identity.oraclecloud.com:/oauth/v1/token”).

Configuring applications that integrate with external services with thenecessary endpoints and keeping that configuration up to date istypically a challenge. To meet this challenge, embodiments expose apublic discovery API at a well-known location from where applicationscan discover the information about IDCS they need in order to consumeIDCS APIs. In one embodiment, two discovery documents are supported:IDCS Configuration (which includes IDCS, SAML, SCIM, OAuth, and OpenIDConnect configuration, at e.g.,<IDCS-URL>/.well-known/idcs-configuration), and Industry-standard OpenIDConnect Configuration (at, e.g.,<IDCS-URL>/.well-known/openid-configuration). Applications can retrievediscovery documents by being configured with a single IDCS URL.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram providing a system view 600 of IDCS in oneembodiment. In FIG. 6, any one of a variety of applications/services 602may make HTTP calls to IDCS APIs to use IDCS services. Examples of suchapplications/services 602 are web applications, native applications(e.g., applications that are built to run on a specific operatingsystem, such as Windows applications, iOS applications, Androidapplications, etc.), web services, customer applications, partnerapplications, or any services provided by a public cloud, such asSoftware as a Service (“SaaS”), PaaS, and Infrastructure as a Service(“IaaS”).

In one embodiment, the HTTP requests of applications/services 602 thatrequire IDCS services go through an Oracle Public Cloud BIG-IP appliance604 and an IDCS BIG-IP appliance 606 (or similar technologies such as aLoad Balancer, or a component called a Cloud Load Balancer as a Service(“LBaaS”) that implements appropriate security rules to protect thetraffic). However, the requests can be received in any manner. At IDCSBIG-IP appliance 606 (or, as applicable, a similar technology such as aLoad Balancer or a Cloud LBaaS), a cloud provisioning engine 608performs tenant and service orchestration. In one embodiment, cloudprovisioning engine 608 manages internal security artifacts associatedwith a new tenant being on-boarded into the cloud or a new serviceinstance purchased by a customer.

The HTTP requests are then received by an IDCS web routing tier 610 thatimplements a security gate (i.e., Cloud Gate) and provides servicerouting and microservices registration and discovery 612. Depending onthe service requested, the HTTP request is forwarded to an IDCSmicroservice in the IDCS middle tier 614. IDCS microservices processexternal and internal HTTP requests. IDCS microservices implementplatform services and infrastructure services. IDCS platform servicesare separately deployed Java-based runtime services implementing thebusiness of IDCS. IDCS infrastructure services are separately deployedruntime services providing infrastructure support for IDCS. IDCS furtherincludes infrastructure libraries that are common code packaged asshared libraries used by IDCS services and shared libraries.Infrastructure services and libraries provide supporting capabilities asrequired by platform services for implementing their functionality.

Platform Services

In one embodiment, IDCS supports standard authentication protocols,hence IDCS microservices include platform services such as OpenIDConnect, OAuth, SAML2, System for Cross-domain IdentityManagement++(“SCIM++”), etc.

The OpenID Connect platform service implements standard OpenID ConnectLogin/Logout flows. Interactive web-based and native applicationsleverage standard browser-based OpenID Connect flow to request userauthentication, receiving standard identity tokens that are JavaScriptObject Notation (“JSON”) Web Tokens (“JWTs”) conveying the user'sauthenticated identity. Internally, the runtime authentication model isstateless, maintaining the user's authentication/session state in theform of a host HTTP cookie (including the JWT identity token). Theauthentication interaction initiated via the OpenID Connect protocol isdelegated to a trusted SSO service that implements the user login/logoutceremonies for local and federated logins. Further details of thisfunctionality are disclosed below with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11. Inone embodiment, OpenID Connect functionality is implemented accordingto, for example, OpenID Foundation standards.

The OAuth2 platform service provides token authorization services. Itprovides a rich API infrastructure for creating and validating accesstokens conveying user rights to make API calls. It supports a range ofuseful token grant types, enabling customers to securely connect clientsto their services. It implements standard 2-legged and 3-legged OAuth2token grant types. Support for OpenID Connect (“OIDC”) enables compliantapplications (OIDC relaying parties (“RP”s)) to integrate with IDCS asthe identity provider (OIDC OpenID provider (“OP”)). Similarly, theintegration of IDCS as OIDC RP with social OIDC OP (e.g., Facebook,Google, etc.) enables customers to allow social identities policy-basedaccess to applications. In one embodiment, OAuth functionality isimplemented according to, for example, Internet Engineering Task Force(“IETF”), Request for Comments (“RFC”) 6749.

The SAML2 platform service provides identity federation services. Itenables customers to set up federation agreements with their partnersbased on SAML identity provider (“IDP”) and SAML service provider (“SP”)relationship models. In one embodiment, the SAML2 platform serviceimplements standard SAML2 Browser POST Login and Logout Profiles. In oneembodiment, SAML functionality is implemented according to, for example,IETF, RFC 7522.

SCIM is an open standard for automating the exchange of user identityinformation between identity domains or information technology (“IT”)systems, as provided by, e.g., IETF, RFCs 7642, 7643, 7644. The SCIM++platform service provides identity administration services and enablescustomers to access IDP features of IDCS. The administration servicesexpose a set of stateless REST interfaces (i.e., APIs) that coveridentity lifecycle, password management, group management, etc.,exposing such artifacts as web-accessible resources.

All IDCS configuration artifacts are resources, and the APIs of theadministration services allow for managing IDCS resources (e.g., users,roles, password policies, applications, SAML/OIDC identity providers,SAML service providers, keys, certifications, notification templates,etc.). Administration services leverage and extend the SCIM standard toimplement schema-based REST APIs for Create, Read, Update, Delete, andQuery (“CRUDQ”) operations on all IDCS resources. Additionally, allinternal resources of IDCS used for administration and configuration ofIDCS itself are exposed as SCIM-based REST APIs. Access to the identitystore 618 is isolated to the SCIM++ API.

In one embodiment, for example, the SCIM standard is implemented tomanage the users and groups resources as defined by the SCIMspecifications, while SCIM++ is configured to support additional IDCSinternal resources (e.g., password policies, roles, settings, etc.)using the language defined by the SCIM standard.

The Administration service supports the SCIM 2.0 standard endpoints withthe standard SCIM 2.0 core schemas and schema extensions where needed.In addition, the Administration service supports several SCIM 2.0compliant endpoint extensions to manage other IDCS resources, forexample, Users, Groups, Applications, Settings, etc. The Administrationservice also supports a set of remote procedure call-style (“RPC-style”)REST interfaces that do not perform CRUDQ operations but instead providea functional service, for example, “UserPasswordGenerator,”“UserPasswordValidator,” etc.

IDCS Administration APIs use the OAuth2 protocol for authentication andauthorization. IDCS supports common OAuth2 scenarios such as scenariosfor web server, mobile, and JavaScript applications. Access to IDCS APIsis protected by access tokens. To access IDCS Administration APIs, anapplication needs to be registered as an OAuth2 client or an IDCSApplication (in which case the OAuth2 client is created automatically)through the IDCS Administration console and be granted desired IDCSAdministration Roles. When making IDCS Administration API calls, theapplication first requests an access token from the IDCS OAuth2 Service.After acquiring the token, the application sends the access token to theIDCS API by including it in the HTTP authorization header. Applicationscan use IDCS Administration REST APIs directly, or use an IDCS JavaClient API Library.

Infrastructure Services

The IDCS infrastructure services support the functionality of IDCSplatform services. These runtime services include an event processingservice (for asynchronously processing user notifications, applicationsubscriptions, and auditing to database); a job scheduler service (forscheduling and executing jobs, e.g., executing immediately or at aconfigured time long-running tasks that do not require userintervention); a cache management service; a storage management service(for integrating with a public cloud storage service); a reports service(for generating reports and dashboards); an SSO service (for managinginternal user authentication and SSO); a user interface (“UI”) service(for hosting different types of UI clients); and a service managerservice. Service manager is an internal interface between the OraclePublic Cloud and IDCS. Service manager manages commands issued by theOracle Public Cloud, where the commands need to be implemented by IDCS.For example, when a customer signs up for an account in a cloud storebefore they can buy something, the cloud sends a request to IDCS askingto create a tenant. In this case, service manager implements the cloudspecific operations that the cloud expects IDCS to support.

An IDCS microservice may call another IDCS microservice through anetwork interface (i.e., an HTTP request).

In one embodiment, IDCS may also provide a schema service (or apersistence service) that allows for using a database schema. A schemaservice allows for delegating the responsibility of managing databaseschemas to IDCS. Accordingly, a user of IDCS does not need to manage adatabase since there is an IDCS service that provides thatfunctionality. For example, the user may use the database to persistschemas on a per tenant basis, and when there is no more space in thedatabase, the schema service will manage the functionality of obtaininganother database and growing the space so that the users do not have tomanage the database themselves.

IDCS further includes data stores which are data repositoriesrequired/generated by IDCS, including an identity store 618 (storingusers, groups, etc.), a global database 620 (storing configuration dataused by IDCS to configure itself), an operational schema 622 (providingper tenant schema separation and storing customer data on a per customerbasis), an audit schema 624 (storing audit data), a caching cluster 626(storing cached objects to speed up performance), etc. All internal andexternal IDCS consumers integrate with the identity services overstandards-based protocols. This enables use of a domain name system(“DNS”) to resolve where to route requests, and decouples consumingapplications from understanding the internal implementation of identityservices.

Real-Time and Near Real-Time Tasks

IDCS separates the tasks of a requested service into synchronousreal-time and asynchronous near-real-time tasks, where real-time tasksinclude only the operations that are needed for the user to proceed. Inone embodiment, a real-time task is a task that is performed withminimal delay, and a near-real-time task is a task that is performed inthe background without the user having to wait for it. In oneembodiment, a real-time task is a task that is performed withsubstantially no delay or with negligible delay, and appears to a useras being performed almost instantaneously.

The real-time tasks perform the main business functionality of aspecific identity service. For example, when requesting a login service,an application sends a message to authenticate a user's credentials andget a session cookie in return. What the user experiences is logginginto the system. However, several other tasks may be performed inconnection with the user's logging in, such as validating who the useris, auditing, sending notifications, etc. Accordingly, validating thecredentials is a task that is performed in real-time so that the user isgiven an HTTP cookie to start a session, but the tasks related tonotifications (e.g., sending an email to notify the creation of anaccount), audits (e.g., tracking/recording), etc., are near-real-timetasks that can be performed asynchronously so that the user can proceedwith least delay.

When an HTTP request for a microservice is received, the correspondingreal-time tasks are performed by the microservice in the middle tier,and the remaining near-real-time tasks such as operational logic/eventsthat are not necessarily subject to real-time processing are offloadedto message queues 628 that support a highly scalable asynchronous eventmanagement system 630 with guaranteed delivery and processing.Accordingly, certain behaviors are pushed from the front end to thebackend to enable IDCS to provide high level service to the customers byreducing latencies in response times. For example, a login process mayinclude validation of credentials, submission of a log report, updatingof the last login time, etc., but these tasks can be offloaded to amessage queue and performed in near-real-time as opposed to real-time.

In one example, a system may need to register or create a new user. Thesystem calls an IDCS SCIM API to create a user. The end result is thatwhen the user is created in identity store 618, the user gets anotification email including a link to reset their password. When IDCSreceives a request to register or create a new user, the correspondingmicroservice looks at configuration data in the operational database(located in global database 620 in FIG. 6) and determines that the“create user” operation is marked with a “create user” event which isidentified in the configuration data as an asynchronous operation. Themicroservice returns to the client and indicates that the creation ofthe user is done successfully, but the actual sending of thenotification email is postponed and pushed to the backend. In order todo so, the microservice uses a messaging API 616 to queue the message inqueue 628 which is a store.

In order to dequeue queue 628, a messaging microservice, which is aninfrastructure microservice, continually runs in the background andscans queue 628 looking for events in queue 628. The events in queue 628are processed by event subscribers 630 such as audit, user notification,application subscriptions, data analytics, etc. Depending on the taskindicated by an event, event subscribers 630 may communicate with, forexample, audit schema 624, a user notification service 634, an identityevent subscriber 632, etc. For example, when the messaging microservicefinds the “create user” event in queue 628, it executes thecorresponding notification logic and sends the corresponding email tothe user.

In one embodiment, queue 628 queues operational events published bymicroservices 614 as well as resource events published by APIs 616 thatmanage IDCS resources.

IDCS uses a real-time caching structure to enhance system performanceand user experience. The cache itself may also be provided as amicroservice. IDCS implements an elastic cache cluster 626 that grows asthe number of customers supported by IDCS scales. Cache cluster 626 maybe implemented with a distributed data grid which is disclosed in moredetail below. In one embodiment, write-only resources bypass cache.

In one embodiment, IDCS runtime components publish health andoperational metrics to a public cloud monitoring module 636 thatcollects such metrics of a public cloud such as Oracle Public Cloud fromOracle Corp.

In one embodiment, IDCS may be used to create a user. For example, aclient application 602 may issue a REST API call to create a user. Adminservice (a platform service in 614) delegates the call to a user manager(an infrastructure library/service in 614), which in turn creates theuser in the tenant-specific ID store stripe in ID store 618. On “UserCreate Success”, the user manager audits the operation to the audittable in audit schema 624, and publishes an“identity.user.create.success” event to message queue 628. Identitysubscriber 632 picks up the event and sends a “Welcome” email to thenewly created user, including newly created login details.

In one embodiment, IDCS may be used to grant a role to a user, resultingin a user provisioning action. For example, a client application 602 mayissue a REST API call to grant a user a role. Admin service (a platformservice in 614) delegates the call to a role manager (an infrastructurelibrary/service in 614), who grants the user a role in thetenant-specific ID store stripe in ID store 618. On “Role GrantSuccess”, the role manager audits the operations to the audit table inaudit schema 624, and publishes an “identity.user.role.grant.success”event to message queue 628. Identity subscriber 632 picks up the eventand evaluates the provisioning grant policy. If there is an activeapplication grant on the role being granted, a provisioning subscriberperforms some validation, initiates account creation, calls out thetarget system, creates an account on the target system, and marks theaccount creation as successful. Each of these functionalities may resultin publishing of corresponding events, such as“prov.account.create.initiate”, “prov.target.create.initiate”,“prov.target.create.success”, or “prov.account.create.success”. Theseevents may have their own business metrics aggregating number ofaccounts created in the target system over the last N days.

In one embodiment, IDCS may be used for a user to log in. For example, aclient application 602 may use one of the supported authentication flowsto request a login for a user. IDCS authenticates the user, and uponsuccess, audits the operation to the audit table in audit schema 624.Upon failure, IDCS audits the failure in audit schema 624, and publishes“login.user.login.failure” event in message queue 628. A loginsubscriber picks up the event, updates its metrics for the user, anddetermines if additional analytics on the user's access history need tobe performed.

Accordingly, by implementing “inversion of control” functionality (e.g.,changing the flow of execution to schedule the execution of an operationat a later time so that the operation is under the control of anothersystem), embodiments enable additional event queues and subscribers tobe added dynamically to test new features on a small user sample beforedeploying to broader user base, or to process specific events forspecific internal or external customers.

Stateless Functionality

IDCS microservices are stateless, meaning the microservices themselvesdo not maintain state. “State” refers to the data that an applicationuses in order to perform its capabilities. IDCS provides multi-tenantfunctionality by persisting all state into tenant specific repositoriesin the IDCS data tier. The middle tier (i.e., the code that processesthe requests) does not have data stored in the same location as theapplication code. Accordingly, IDCS is highly scalable, bothhorizontally and vertically.

To scale vertically (or scale up/down) means to add resources to (orremove resources from) a single node in a system, typically involvingthe addition of CPUs or memory to a single computer. Verticalscalability allows an application to scale up to the limits of itshardware. To scale horizontally (or scale out/in) means to add morenodes to (or remove nodes from) a system, such as adding a new computerto a distributed software application. Horizontal scalability allows anapplication to scale almost infinitely, bound only by the amount ofbandwidth provided by the network.

Stateless-ness of the middle tier of IDCS makes it horizontally scalablejust by adding more CPUs, and the IDCS components that perform the workof the application do not need to have a designated physicalinfrastructure where a particular application is running. Stateless-nessof the IDCS middle tier makes IDCS highly available, even when providingidentity services to a very large number of customers/tenants. Each passthrough an IDCS application/service is focused on CPU usage only toperform the application transaction itself but not use hardware to storedata. Scaling is accomplished by adding more slices when the applicationis running, while data for the transaction is stored at a persistencelayer where more copies can be added when needed.

The IDCS web tier, middle tier, and data tier can each scaleindependently and separately. The web tier can be scaled to handle moreHTTP requests. The middle tier can be scaled to support more servicefunctionality. The data tier can be scaled to support more tenants.

IDCS Functional View

FIG. 6A is an example block diagram 600 b of a functional view of IDCSin one embodiment. In block diagram 600 b, the IDCS functional stackincludes services, shared libraries, and data stores. The servicesinclude IDCS platform services 640 b, IDCS premium services 650 b, andIDCS infrastructure services 662 b. In one embodiment, IDCS platformservices 640 b and IDCS premium services 650 b are separately deployedJava-based runtime services implementing the business of IDCS, and IDCSinfrastructure services 662 b are separately deployed runtime servicesproviding infrastructure support for IDCS. The shared libraries includeIDCS infrastructure libraries 680 b which are common code packaged asshared libraries used by IDCS services and shared libraries. The datastores are data repositories required/generated by IDCS, includingidentity store 698 b, global configuration 700 b, message store 702 b,global tenant 704 b, personalization settings 706 b, resources 708 b,user transient data 710 b, system transient data 712 b, per-tenantschemas (managed ExaData) 714 b, operational store (not shown), cachingstore (not shown), etc.

In one embodiment, IDCS platform services 640 b include, for example,OpenID Connect service 642 b, OAuth2 service 644 b, SAML2 service 646 b,and SCIM++ service 648 b. In one embodiment, IDCS premium servicesinclude, for example, cloud SSO and governance 652 b, enterprisegovernance 654 b, AuthN broker 656 b, federation broker 658 b, andprivate account management 660 b.

IDCS infrastructure services 662 b and IDCS infrastructure libraries 680b provide supporting capabilities as required by IDCS platform services640 b to do their work. In one embodiment, IDCS infrastructure services662 b include job scheduler 664 b, UI 666 b, SSO 668 b, reports 670 b,cache 672 b, storage 674 b, service manager 676 b (public cloudcontrol), and event processor 678 b (user notifications, appsubscriptions, auditing, data analytics). In one embodiment, IDCSinfrastructure libraries 680 b include data manager APIs 682 b, eventAPIs 684 b, storage APIs 686 b, authentication APIs 688 b, authorizationAPIs 690 b, cookie APIs 692 b, keys APIs 694 b, and credentials APIs 696b. In one embodiment, cloud compute service 602 b (internal Nimbula)supports the function of IDCS infrastructure services 662 b and IDCSinfrastructure libraries 680 b.

In one embodiment, IDCS provides various Uls 602 b for a consumer ofIDCS services, such as customer end user UI 604 b, customer admin UI 606b, DevOps admin UI 608 b, and login UI 610 b. In one embodiment, IDCSallows for integration 612 b of applications (e.g., customer apps 614 b,partner apps 616 b, and cloud apps 618 b) and firmware integration 620b. In one embodiment, various environments may integrate with IDCS tosupport their access control needs. Such integration may be provided by,for example, identity bridge 622 b (providing AD integration, WNA, andSCIM connector), Apache agent 624 b, or MSFT agent 626 b.

In one embodiment, internal and external IDCS consumers integrate withthe identity services of IDCS over standards-based protocols 628 b, suchas OpenID Connect 630 b, OAuth2 632 b, SAML2 634 b, SCIM 636 b, andREST/HTTP 638 b. This enables use of a domain name system (“DNS”) toresolve where to route requests, and decouples the consumingapplications from understanding internal implementation of the identityservices.

The IDCS functional view in FIG. 6A further includes public cloudinfrastructure services that provide common functionality that IDCSdepends on for user notifications (cloud notification service 718 b),file storage (cloud storage service 716 b), and metrics/alerting forDevOps (cloud monitoring service (EM) 722 b and cloud metrics service(Graphite) 720 b).

Cloud Gate

In one embodiment, IDCS implements a “Cloud Gate” in the web tier. CloudGate is a web server plugin that enables web applications to externalizeuser SSO to an identity management system (e.g., IDCS), similar toWebGate or WebAgent technologies that work with enterprise IDM stacks.Cloud Gate acts as a security gatekeeper that secures access to IDCSAPIs. In one embodiment, Cloud Gate is implemented by a web/proxy serverplugin that provides a web Policy Enforcement Point (“PEP”) forprotecting HTTP resources based on OAuth.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram 700 of an embodiment that implements a CloudGate 702 running in a web server 712 and acting as a Policy EnforcementPoint (“PEP”) configured to integrate with IDCS Policy Decision Point(“PDP”) using open standards (e.g., OAuth2, OpenID Connect, etc.) whilesecuring access to web browser and REST API resources 714 of anapplication. In some embodiments, the PDP is implemented at OAuth and/orOpenID Connect microservices 704. For example, when a user browser 706sends a request to IDCS for a login of a user 710, a corresponding IDCSPDP validates the credentials and then decides whether the credentialsare sufficient (e.g., whether to request for further credentials such asa second password). In the embodiment of FIG. 7, Cloud Gate 702 may actboth as the PEP and as the PDP since it has a local policy.

As part of one-time deployment, Cloud Gate 702 is registered with IDCSas an OAuth2 client, enabling it to request OIDC and OAuth2 operationsagainst IDCS. Thereafter, it maintains configuration information aboutan application's protected and unprotected resources, subject to requestmatching rules (how to match URLs, e.g., with wild cards, regularexpressions, etc.). Cloud Gate 702 can be deployed to protect differentapplications having different security policies, and the protectedapplications can be multi-tenant.

During web browser-based user access, Cloud Gate 702 acts as an OIDC RP718 initiating a user authentication flow. If user 710 has no validlocal user session, Cloud Gate 702 re-directs the user to the SSOmicroservice and participates in the OIDC “Authorization Code” flow withthe SSO microservice. The flow concludes with the delivery of a JWT asan identity token. Cloud Gate 708 validates the JWT (e.g., looks atsignature, expiration, destination/audience, etc.) and issues a localsession cookie for user 710. It acts as a session manager 716 securingweb browser access to protected resources and issuing, updating, andvalidating the local session cookie. It also provides a logout URL forremoval of its local session cookie.

Cloud Gate 702 also acts as an HTTP Basic Auth authenticator, validatingHTTP Basic Auth credentials against IDCS. This behavior is supported inboth session-less and session-based (local session cookie) modes. Noserver-side IDCS session is created in this case.

During programmatic access by REST API clients 708, Cloud Gate 702 mayact as an OAuth2 resource server/filter 720 for an application'sprotected REST APIs 714. It checks for the presence of a request with anauthorization header and an access token. When client 708 (e.g., mobile,web apps, JavaScript, etc.) presents an access token (issued by IDCS) touse with a protected REST API 714, Cloud Gate 702 validates the accesstoken before allowing access to the API (e.g., signature, expiration,audience, etc.). The original access token is passed along unmodified.

Generally, OAuth is used to generate either a client identitypropagation token (e.g., indicating who the client is) or a useridentity propagation token (e.g., indicating who the user is). In theembodiments, the implementation of OAuth in Cloud Gate is based on a JWTwhich defines a format for web tokens, as provided by, e.g., IETF, RFC7519.

When a user logs in, a JWT is issued. The JWT is signed by IDCS andsupports multi-tenant functionality in IDCS. Cloud Gate validates theJWT issued by IDCS to allow for multi-tenant functionality in IDCS.Accordingly, IDCS provides multi-tenancy in the physical structure aswell as in the logical business process that underpins the securitymodel.

Tenancy Types

IDCS specifies three types of tenancies: customer tenancy, clienttenancy, and user tenancy. Customer or resource tenancy specifies whothe customer of IDCS is (i.e., for whom is the work being performed).Client tenancy specifies which client application is trying to accessdata (i.e., what application is doing the work). User tenancy specifieswhich user is using the application to access data (i.e., by whom is thework being performed). For example, when a professional services companyprovides system integration functionality for a warehouse club and usesIDCS for providing identity management for the warehouse club systems,user tenancy corresponds to the professional services company, clienttenancy is the application that is used to provide system integrationfunctionality, and customer tenancy is the warehouse club.

Separation and identification of these three tenancies enablesmulti-tenant functionality in a cloud-based service. Generally, foron-premise software that is installed on a physical machine on-premise,there is no need to specify three different tenancies since a user needsto be physically on the machine to log in. However, in a cloud-basedservice structure, embodiments use tokens to determine who is using whatapplication to access which resources. The three tenancies are codifiedby tokens, enforced by Cloud Gate, and used by the business services inthe middle tier. In one embodiment, an OAuth server generates thetokens. In various embodiments, the tokens may be used in conjunctionwith any security protocol other than OAuth.

Decoupling user, client, and resource tenancies provides substantialbusiness advantages for the users of the services provided by IDCS. Forexample, it allows a service provider that understands the needs of abusiness (e.g., a healthcare business) and their identity managementproblems to buy services provided by IDCS, develop their own backendapplication that consumes the services of IDCS, and provide the backendapplications to the target businesses. Accordingly, the service providermay extend the services of IDCS to provide their desired capabilitiesand offer those to certain target businesses. The service provider doesnot have to build and run software to provide identity services but caninstead extend and customize the services of IDCS to suit the needs ofthe target businesses.

Some known systems only account for a single tenancy which is customertenancy. However, such systems are inadequate when dealing with accessby a combination of users such as customer users, customer's partners,customer's clients, clients themselves, or clients that customer hasdelegated access to. Defining and enforcing multiple tenancies in theembodiments facilitates the identity management functionality over suchvariety of users.

In one embodiment, one entity of IDCS does not belong to multipletenants at the same time; it belongs to only one tenant, and a “tenancy”is where artifacts live. Generally, there are multiple components thatimplement certain functions, and these components can belong to tenantsor they can belong to infrastructure. When infrastructure needs to acton behalf of tenants, it interacts with an entity service on behalf ofthe tenant. In that case, infrastructure itself has its own tenancy andcustomer has its own tenancy. When a request is submitted, there can bemultiple tenancies involved in the request.

For example, a client that belongs to “tenant 1” may execute a requestto get a token for “tenant 2” specifying a user in “tenant 3.” Asanother example, a user living in “tenant 1” may need to perform anaction in an application owned by “tenant 2”. Thus, the user needs to goto the resource namespace of “tenant 2” and request a token forthemselves. Accordingly, delegation of authority is accomplished byidentifying “who” can do “what” to “whom.” As yet another example, afirst user working for a first organization (“tenant 1”) may allow asecond user working for a second organization (“tenant 2”) to haveaccess to a document hosted by a third organization (“tenant 3”).

In one example, a client in “tenant 1” may request an access token for auser in “tenant 2” to access an application in “tenant 3”. The clientmay do so by invoking an OAuth request for the token by going to“http://tenant3/oauth/token”. The client identifies itself as a clientthat lives in “tenant 1” by including a “client assertion” in therequest. The client assertion includes a client ID (e.g., “client 1”)and the client tenancy “tenant 1”. As “client 1” in “tenant 1”, theclient has the right to invoke a request for a token on “tenant 3”, andthe client wants the token for a user in “tenant 2”. Accordingly, a“user assertion” is also passed as part of the same HTTP request. Theaccess token that is generated will be issued in the context of thetarget tenancy which is the application tenancy (“tenant 3”) and willinclude the user tenancy (“tenant 2”).

In one embodiment, in the data tier, each tenant is implemented as aseparate stripe. From a data management perspective, artifacts live in atenant. From a service perspective, a service knows how to work withdifferent tenants, and the multiple tenancies are different dimensionsin the business function of a service. FIG. 8 illustrates an examplesystem 800 implementing multiple tenancies in an embodiment. System 800includes a client 802 that requests a service provided by a microservice804 that understands how to work with data in a database 806. Thedatabase includes multiple tenants 808 and each tenant includes theartifacts of the corresponding tenancy. In one embodiment, microservice804 is an OAuth microservice requested throughhttps://tenant3/oauth/token for getting a token. The function of theOAuth microservice is performed in microservice 804 using data fromdatabase 806 to verify that the request of client 802 is legitimate, andif it is legitimate, use the data from different tenancies 808 toconstruct the token. Accordingly, system 800 is multi-tenant in that itcan work in a cross-tenant environment by not only supporting servicescoming into each tenancy, but also supporting services that can act onbehalf of different tenants.

System 800 is advantageous since microservice 804 is physicallydecoupled from the data in database 806, and by replicating the dataacross locations that are closer to the client, microservice 804 can beprovided as a local service to the clients and system 800 can manage theavailability of the service and provide it globally.

In one embodiment, microservice 804 is stateless, meaning that themachine that runs microservice 804 does not maintain any markerspointing the service to any specific tenants. Instead, a tenancy may bemarked, for example, on the host portion of a URL of a request thatcomes in. That tenancy points to one of tenants 808 in database 806.When supporting a large number of tenants (e.g., millions of tenants),microservice 804 cannot have the same number of connections to database806, but instead uses a connection pool 810 which provides the actualphysical connections to database 806 in the context of a database user.

Generally, connections are built by supplying an underlying driver orprovider with a connection string, which is used to address a specificdatabase or server and to provide instance and user authenticationcredentials (e.g., “Server=sql_box; Database=Common; User ID=uid;Pwd=password;”). Once a connection has been built, it can be opened andclosed, and properties (e.g., the command time-out length, ortransaction, if one exists) can be set. The connection string includes aset of key-value pairs, dictated by the data access interface of thedata provider. A connection pool is a cache of database connectionsmaintained so that the connections can be reused when future requests toa database are required. In connection pooling, after a connection iscreated, it is placed in the pool and it is used again so that a newconnection does not have to be established. For example, when thereneeds to be ten connections between microservice 804 and database 808,there will be ten open connections in connection pool 810, all in thecontext of a database user (e.g., in association with a specificdatabase user, e.g., who is the owner of that connection, whosecredentials are being validated, is it a database user, is it a systemcredential, etc.).

The connections in connection pool 810 are created for a system userthat can access anything. Therefore, in order to correctly handleauditing and privileges by microservice 804 processing requests onbehalf of a tenant, the database operation is performed in the contextof a “proxy user” 812 associated with the schema owner assigned to thespecific tenant. This schema owner can access only the tenancy that theschema was created for, and the value of the tenancy is the value of theschema owner. When a request is made for data in database 806,microservice 804 uses the connections in connection pool 810 to providethat data. Accordingly, multi-tenancy is achieved by having stateless,elastic middle tier services process incoming requests in the context of(e.g., in association with) the tenant-specific data store bindingestablished on a per request basis on top of the data connection createdin the context of (e.g., in association with) the data store proxy userassociated with the resource tenancy, and the database can scaleindependently of the services.

The following provides an example functionality for implementing proxyuser 812:

   dbOperation = <prepare DB command to execute>  dbConnection =getDBConnectionFrom Pool( ) dbConnection.setProxyUser (resourceTenant) result = dbConnection.executeOperation (dbOperation)In this functionality, microservice 804 sets the “Proxy User” setting onthe connection pulled from connection pool 810 to the “Tenant,” andperforms the database operation in the context of the tenant while usingthe database connection in connection pool 810.

When striping every table to configure different columns in a samedatabase for different tenants, one table may include all tenants' datamixed together. In contrast, one embodiment provides a tenant-drivendata tier. The embodiment does not stripe the same database fordifferent tenants, but instead provides a different physical databaseper tenant. For example, multi-tenancy may be implemented by using apluggable database (e.g., Oracle Database 12 c from Oracle Corp.) whereeach tenant is allocated a separate partition. At the data tier, aresource manager processes the request and then asks for the data sourcefor the request (separate from metadata). The embodiment performsruntime switch to a respective data source/store per request. Byisolating each tenant's data from the other tenants, the embodimentprovides improved data security.

In one embodiment, various tokens codify different tenancies. A URLtoken may identify the tenancy of the application that requests aservice. An identity token may codify the identity of a user that is tobe authenticated. An access token may identify multiple tenancies. Forexample, an access token may codify the tenancy that is the target ofsuch access (e.g., an application tenancy) as well as the user tenancyof the user that is given access. A client assertion token may identifya client ID and the client tenancy. A user-assertion token may identifythe user and the user tenancy.

In one embodiment, an identity token includes at least a claimindicating the user tenant name (i.e., where the user lives).

In one embodiment, an access token includes at least a claim indicatingthe resource tenant name at the time the request for the access tokenwas made (e.g., the customer), a claim indicating the user tenant name,a claim indicating the name of the OAuth client making the request, anda claim indicating the client tenant name. In one embodiment, an accesstoken may be implemented according to the following JSON functionality:

  {  ...  “ tok_type “ : “AT”,  “user_id” : “testuser”, “user_tenantname” : “<value-of-identity-tenant>“  “tenant” :“<value-of-resource-tenant>“  “client_id” : “testclient”, “client_tenantname”: “<value-of-client-tenant>“  ... }

In one embodiment, a client assertion token includes at least a claimindicating the client tenant name, and a claim indicating the name ofthe OAuth client making the request.

The tokens and/or multiple tenancies described herein may be implementedin any multi-tenant cloud-based service other than IDCS. For example,the tokens and/or multiple tenancies described herein may be implementedin SaaS or Enterprise Resource Planning (“ERP”) services.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a network view 900 of IDCS in oneembodiment. FIG. 9 illustrates network interactions that are performedin one embodiment between application “zones” 904. Applications arebroken into zones based on the required level of protection and theimplementation of connections to various other systems (e.g., SSL zone,no SSL zone, etc.). Some application zones provide services that requireaccess from the inside of IDCS, while some application zones provideservices that require access from the outside of IDCS, and some are openaccess. Accordingly, a respective level of protection is enforced foreach zone.

In the embodiment of FIG. 9, service to service communication isperformed using HTTP requests. In one embodiment, IDCS uses the accesstokens described herein not only to provide services but also to secureaccess to and within IDCS itself. In one embodiment, IDCS microservicesare exposed through RESTful interfaces and secured by the tokensdescribed herein.

In the embodiment of FIG. 9, any one of a variety ofapplications/services 902 may make HTTP calls to IDCS APIs to use IDCSservices. In one embodiment, the HTTP requests of applications/services902 go through an Oracle Public Cloud Load Balancing External Virtual IPaddress (“VIP”) 906 (or other similar technologies), a public cloud webrouting tier 908, and an IDCS Load Balancing Internal VIP appliance 910(or other similar technologies), to be received by IDCS web routing tier912. IDCS web routing tier 912 receives the requests coming in from theoutside or from the inside of IDCS and routes them across either an IDCSplatform services tier 914 or an IDCS infrastructure services tier 916.IDCS platform services tier 914 includes IDCS microservices that areinvoked from the outside of IDCS, such as OpenID Connect, OAuth, SAML,SCIM, etc. IDCS infrastructure services tier 916 includes supportingmicroservices that are invoked from the inside of IDCS to support thefunctionality of other IDCS microservices. Examples of IDCSinfrastructure microservices are UI, SSO, reports, cache, job scheduler,service manager, functionality for making keys, etc. An IDCS cache tier926 supports caching functionality for IDCS platform services tier 914and IDCS infrastructure services tier 916.

By enforcing security both for outside access to IDCS and within IDCS,customers of IDCS can be provided with outstanding security compliancefor the applications they run.

In the embodiment of FIG. 9, other than the data tier 918 whichcommunicates based on Structured Query Language (“SQL”) and the ID storetier 920 that communicates based on LDAP, OAuth protocol is used toprotect the communication among IDCS components (e.g., microservices)within IDCS, and the same tokens that are used for securing access fromthe outside of IDCS are also used for security within IDCS. That is, webrouting tier 912 uses the same tokens and protocols for processing therequests it receives regardless of whether a request is received fromthe outside of IDCS or from the inside of IDCS. Accordingly, IDCSprovides a single consistent security model for protecting the entiresystem, thereby allowing for outstanding security compliance since thefewer security models implemented in a system, the more secure thesystem is.

In the IDCS cloud environment, applications communicate by makingnetwork calls. The network call may be based on an applicable networkprotocol such as HTTP, Transmission Control Protocol (“TCP”), UserDatagram Protocol (“UDP”), etc. For example, an application “X” maycommunicate with an application “Y” based on HTTP by exposingapplication “Y” as an HTTP Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”). In oneembodiment, “Y” is an IDCS microservice that exposes a number ofresources each corresponding to a capability. When “X” (e.g., anotherIDCS microservice) needs to call “Y”, it constructs a URL that includes“Y” and the resource/capability that needs to be invoked (e.g.,https:/host/Y/resource), and makes a corresponding REST call which goesthrough web routing tier 912 and gets directed to “Y”.

In one embodiment, a caller outside the IDCS may not need to know where“Y” is, but web routing tier 912 needs to know where application “Y” isrunning. In one embodiment, IDCS implements discovery functionality(implemented by an API of OAuth service) to determine where eachapplication is running so that there is no need for the availability ofstatic routing information.

In one embodiment, an enterprise manager (“EM”) 922 provides a “singlepane of glass” that extends on-premise and cloud-based management toIDCS. In one embodiment, a “Chef” server 924 which is a configurationmanagement tool from Chef Software, Inc., provides configurationmanagement functionality for various IDCS tiers. In one embodiment, aservice deployment infrastructure and/or a persistent stored module 928may send OAuth2 HTTP messages to IDCS web routing tier 912 for tenantlifecycle management operations, public cloud lifecycle managementoperations, or other operations. In one embodiment, IDCS infrastructureservices tier 916 may send ID/password HTTP messages to a public cloudnotification service 930 or a public cloud storage service 932.

Cloud Access Control—SSO

One embodiment supports lightweight cloud standards for implementing acloud scale SSO service. Examples of lightweight cloud standards areHTTP, REST, and any standard that provides access through a browser(since a web browser is lightweight). On the contrary, SOAP is anexample of a heavy cloud standard which requires more management,configuration, and tooling to build a client with. The embodiment usesOpenID Connect semantics for applications to request user authenticationagainst IDCS. The embodiment uses lightweight HTTP cookie-based usersession tracking to track user's active sessions at IDCS withoutstatefull server-side session support. The embodiment uses JWT-basedidentity tokens for applications to use in mapping an authenticatedidentity back to their own local session. The embodiment supportsintegration with federated identity management systems, and exposes SAMLIDP support for enterprise deployments to request user authenticationagainst IDCS.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram 1000 of a system architecture view of SSOfunctionality in IDCS in one embodiment. The embodiment enables clientapplications to leverage standards-based web protocols to initiate userauthentication flows. Applications requiring SSO integration with acloud system may be located in enterprise data centers, in remotepartner data centers, or even operated by a customer on-premise. In oneembodiment, different IDCS platform services implement the business ofSSO, such as OpenID Connect for processing login/logout requests fromconnected native applications (i.e., applications utilizing OpenIDConnect to integrate with IDCS); SAML IDP service for processingbrowser-based login/logout requests from connected applications; SAML SPservice for orchestrating user authentication against an external SAMLIDP; and an internal IDCS SSO service for orchestrating end user loginceremony including local or federated login flows, and for managing IDCShost session cookie. Generally, HTTP works either with a form or withouta form. When it works with a form, the form is seen within a browser.When it works without a form, it functions as a client to servercommunication. Both OpenID Connect and SAML require the ability torender a form, which may be accomplished by presence of a browser orvirtually performed by an application that acts as if there is abrowser. In one embodiment, an application client implementing userauthentication/SSO through IDCS needs to be registered in IDCS as anOAuth2 client and needs to obtain client identifier and credentials(e.g., ID/password, ID/certificate, etc.).

The example embodiment of FIG. 10 includes threecomponents/microservices that collectively provide login capabilities,including two platform microservices: OAuth2 1004 and SAML2 1006, andone infrastructure microservice: SSO 1008. In the embodiment of FIG. 10,IDCS provides an “Identity Metasystem” in which SSO services 1008 areprovided over different types of applications, such as browser based webor native applications 1010 requiring 3-legged OAuth flow and acting asan OpenID Connect relaying party (“RP,” an application that outsourcesits user authentication function to an IDP), native applications 1011requiring 2-legged OAuth flow and acting as an OpenID Connect RP, andweb applications 1012 acting as a SAML SP.

Generally, an Identity Metasystem is an interoperable architecture fordigital identity, allowing for employing a collection of digitalidentities based on multiple underlying technologies, implementations,and providers. LDAP, SAML, and OAuth are examples of different securitystandards that provide identity capability and can be the basis forbuilding applications, and an Identity Metasystem may be configured toprovide a unified security system over such applications. The LDAPsecurity model specifies a specific mechanism for handling identity, andall passes through the system are to be strictly protected. SAML wasdeveloped to allow one set of applications securely exchange informationwith another set of applications that belong to a different organizationin a different security domain. Since there is no trust between the twoapplications, SAML was developed to allow for one application toauthenticate another application that does not belong to the sameorganization. OAuth provides OpenID Connect that is a lightweightprotocol for performing web based authentication.

In the embodiment of FIG. 10, when an OpenID application 1010 connectsto an OpenID server in IDCS, its “channels” request SSO service.Similarly, when a SAML application 1012 connects to a SAML server inIDCS, its “channels” also request SSO service. In IDCS, a respectivemicroservice (e.g., an OpenID microservice 1004 and a SAML microservice1006) will handle each of the applications, and these microservicesrequest SSO capability from SSO microservice 1008. This architecture canbe expanded to support any number of other security protocols by addinga microservice for each protocol and then using SSO microservice 1008for SSO capability. SSO microservice 1008 issues the sessions (i.e., anSSO cookie 1014 is provided) and is the only system in the architecturethat has the authority to issue a session. An IDCS session is realizedthrough the use of SSO cookie 1014 by browser 1002. Browser 1002 alsouses a local session cookie 1016 to manage its local session.

In one embodiment, for example, within a browser, a user may use a firstapplication based on SAML and get logged in, and later use a secondapplication built with a different protocol such as OAuth. The user isprovided with SSO on the second application within the same browser.Accordingly, the browser is the state or user agent and maintains thecookies.

In one embodiment, SSO microservice 1008 provides login ceremony 1018,ID/password recovery 1020, first time login flow 1022, an authenticationmanager 1024, an HTTP cookie manager 1026, and an event manager 1028.Login ceremony 1018 implements SSO functionality based on customersettings and/or application context, and may be configured according toa local form (i.e., basic Auth), an external SAML IDP, an external OIDCIDP, etc. ID/password recovery 1020 is used to recover a user's IDand/or password. First time login flow 1022 is implemented when a userlogs in for the first time (i.e., an SSO session does not yet exist).Authentication manager 1024 issues authentication tokens upon successfulauthentication. HTTP cookie manager 1026 saves the authentication tokenin an SSO cookie. Event manager 1028 publishes events related to SSOfunctionality.

In one embodiment, interactions between OAuth microservice 1004 and SSOmicroservice 1008 are based on browser redirects so that SSOmicroservice 1008 challenges the user using an HTML form, validatescredentials, and issues a session cookie.

In one embodiment, for example, OAuth microservice 1004 may receive anauthorization request from browser 1002 to authenticate a user of anapplication according to 3-legged OAuth flow. OAuth microservice 1004then acts as an OIDC provider 1030, redirects browser 1002 to SSOmicroservice 1008, and passes along application context. Depending onwhether the user has a valid SSO session or not, SSO microservice 1008either validates the existing session or performs a login ceremony. Uponsuccessful authentication or validation, SSO microservice 1008 returnsauthentication context to OAuth microservice 1004. OAuth microservice1004 then redirects browser 1002 to a callback URL with an authorization(“AZ”) code. Browser 1002 sends the AZ code to OAuth microservice 1004to request the required tokens 1032. Browser 1002 also includes itsclient credentials (obtained when registering in IDCS as an OAuth2client) in the HTTP authorization header. OAuth microservice 1004 inreturn provides the required tokens 1032 to browser 1002. In oneembodiment, tokens 1032 provided to browser 1002 include JW identity andaccess tokens signed by the IDCS OAuth2 server. Further details of thisfunctionality are disclosed below with reference to FIG. 11.

In one embodiment, for example, OAuth microservice 1004 may receive anauthorization request from a native application 1011 to authenticate auser according to a 2-legged OAuth flow. In this case, an authenticationmanager 1034 in OAuth microservice 1004 performs the correspondingauthentication (e.g., based on ID/password received from a client 1011)and a token manager 1036 issues a corresponding access token uponsuccessful authentication.

In one embodiment, for example, SAML microservice 1006 may receive anSSO POST request from a browser to authenticate a user of a webapplication 1012 that acts as a SAML SP. SAML microservice 1006 thenacts as a SAML IDP 1038, redirects browser 1002 to SSO microservice1008, and passes along application context. Depending on whether theuser has a valid SSO session or not, SSO microservice 1008 eithervalidates the existing session or performs a login ceremony. Uponsuccessful authentication or validation, SSO microservice 1008 returnsauthentication context to SAML microservice 1006. SAML microservice thenredirects to the SP with required tokens.

In one embodiment, for example, SAML microservice 1006 may act as a SAMLSP 1040 and go to a remote SAML IDP 1042 (e.g., an active directoryfederation service (“ADFS”)). One embodiment implements the standardSAML/AD flows. In one embodiment, interactions between SAML microservice1006 and SSO microservice 1008 are based on browser redirects so thatSSO microservice 1008 challenges the user using an HTML form, validatescredentials, and issues a session cookie.

In one embodiment, the interactions between a component within IDCS(e.g., 1004, 1006, 1008) and a component outside IDCS (e.g., 1002, 1011,1042) are performed through firewalls 1044.

Login/Logout Flow

FIG. 11 is a message sequence flow 1100 of SSO functionality provided byIDCS in one embodiment. When a user uses a browser 1102 to access aclient 1106 (e.g., a browser-based application or a mobile/nativeapplication), Cloud Gate 1104 acts as an application enforcement pointand enforces a policy defined in a local policy text file. If Cloud Gate1104 detects that the user has no local application session, it requiresthe user to be authenticated. In order to do so, Cloud Gate 1104redirects browser 1102 to OAuth2 microservice 1110 to initiate OpenIDConnect login flow against the OAuth2 microservice 1110 (3-legged AZGrant flow with scopes=“openid profile”).

The request of browser 1102 traverses IDCS routing tier web service 1108and Cloud Gate 1104 and reaches OAuth2 microservice 1110. OAuth2microservice 1110 constructs the application context (i.e., metadatathat describes the application, e.g., identity of the connectingapplication, client ID, configuration, what the application can do,etc.), and redirects browser 1102 to SSO microservice 1112 to log in.

If the user has a valid SSO session, SSO microservice 1112 validates theexisting session without starting a login ceremony. If the user does nothave a valid SSO session (i.e., no session cookie exists), the SSOmicroservice 1112 initiates the user login ceremony in accordance withcustomer's login preferences (e.g., displaying a branded login page). Inorder to do so, the SSO microservice 1112 redirects browser 1102 to alogin application service 1114 implemented in JavaScript. Loginapplication service 1114 provides a login page in browser 1102. Browser1102 sends a REST POST to the SSO microservice 1112 including logincredentials. The SSO microservice 1112 generates an access token andsends it to Cloud Gate 1104 in a REST POST. Cloud Gate 1104 sends theauthentication information to Admin SCIM microservice 1116 to validatethe user's password. Admin SCIM microservice 1116 determines successfulauthentication and sends a corresponding message to SSO microservice1112.

In one embodiment, during the login ceremony, the login page does notdisplay a consent page, as “login” operation requires no furtherconsent. Instead, a privacy policy is stated on the login page,informing the user about certain profile attributes being exposed toapplications. During the login ceremony, the SSO microservice 1112respects customer's IDP preferences, and if configured, redirects to theIDP for authentication against the configured IDP.

Upon successful authentication or validation, SSO microservice 1112redirects browser 1102 back to OAuth2 microservice 1110 with the newlycreated/updated SSO host HTTP cookie (e.g., the cookie that is createdin the context of the host indicated by “HOSTURL”) containing the user'sauthentication token. OAuth2 microservice 1110 returns AZ Code (e.g., anOAuth concept) back to browser 1102 and redirects to Cloud Gate 1104.Browser 1102 sends AZ Code to Cloud Gate 1104, and Cloud Gate 1104 sendsa REST POST to OAuth2 microservice 1110 to request the access token andthe identity token. Both tokens are scoped to OAuth microservice 1110(indicated by the audience token claim). Cloud Gate 1104 receives thetokens from OAuth2 microservice 1110.

Cloud Gate 1104 uses the identity token to map the user's authenticatedidentity to its internal account representation, and it may save thismapping in its own HTTP cookie. Cloud Gate 1104 then redirects browser1102 to client 1106. Browser 1102 then reaches client 1106 and receivesa corresponding response from client 1106. From this point on, browser1102 can access the application (i.e., client 1106) seamlessly for aslong as the application's local cookie is valid. Once the local cookiebecomes invalid, the authentication process is repeated.

Cloud Gate 1104 further uses the access token received in a request toobtain “userinfo” from OAuth2 microservice 1110 or the SCIMmicroservice. The access token is sufficient to access the “userinfo”resource for the attributes allowed by the “profile” scope. It is alsosufficient to access “/me” resources via the SCIM microservice. In oneembodiment, by default, the received access token is only good for userprofile attributes that are allowed under the “profile” scope. Access toother profile attributes is authorized based on additional (optional)scopes submitted in the AZ grant login request issued by Cloud Gate1104.

When the user accesses another OAuth2 integrated connecting application,the same process repeats.

In one embodiment, the SSO integration architecture uses a similarOpenID Connect user authentication flow for browser-based user logouts.In one embodiment, a user with an existing application session accessesCloud Gate 1104 to initiate a logout. Alternatively, the user may haveinitiated the logout on the IDCS side. Cloud Gate 1104 terminates theapplication-specific user session, and initiates OAuth2 OpenID Provider(“OP”) logout request against OAuth2 microservice 1110. OAuth2microservice 1110 redirects to SSO microservice 1112 that kills theuser's host SSO cookie. SSO microservice 1112 initiates a set ofredirects (OAuth2 OP and SAML IDP) against known logout endpoints astracked in user's SSO cookie.

In one embodiment, if Cloud Gate 1104 uses SAML protocol to request userauthentication (e.g., login), a similar process starts between the SAMLmicroservice and SSO microservice 1112.

Cloud Cache

One embodiment provides a service/capability referred to as Cloud Cache.Cloud Cache is provided in IDCS to support communication withapplications that are LDAP based (e.g., email servers, calendar servers,some business applications, etc.) since IDCS does not communicateaccording to LDAP while such applications are configured to communicateonly based on LDAP. Typically, cloud directories are exposed via RESTAPIs and do not communicate according to the LDAP protocol. Generally,managing LDAP connections across corporate firewalls requires specialconfigurations that are difficult to set up and manage.

To support LDAP based applications, Cloud Cache translates LDAPcommunications to a protocol suitable for communication with a cloudsystem. Generally, an LDAP based application uses a database via LDAP.An application may be alternatively configured to use a database via adifferent protocol such as SQL. However, LDAP provides a hierarchicalrepresentation of resources in tree structures, while SQL representsdata as tables and fields. Accordingly, LDAP may be more desirable forsearching functionality, while SQL may be more desirable fortransactional functionality.

In one embodiment, services provided by IDCS may be used in an LDAPbased application to, for example, authenticate a user of theapplications (i.e., an identity service) or enforce a security policyfor the application (i.e., a security service). In one embodiment, theinterface with IDCS is through a firewall and based on HTTP (e.g.,REST). Typically, corporate firewalls do not allow access to internalLDAP communication even if the communication implements Secure SocketsLayer (“SSL”), and do not allow a TCP port to be exposed through thefirewall. However, Cloud Cache translates between LDAP and HTTP to allowLDAP based applications reach services provided by IDCS, and thefirewall will be open for HTTP.

Generally, an LDAP directory may be used in a line of business such asmarketing and development, and defines users, groups, works, etc. In oneexample, a marketing and development business may have differenttargeted customers, and for each customer, may have their ownapplications, users, groups, works, etc. Another example of a line ofbusiness that may run an LDAP cache directory is a wireless serviceprovider. In this case, each call made by a user of the wireless serviceprovider authenticates the user's device against the LDAP directory, andsome of the corresponding information in the LDAP directory may besynchronized with a billing system. In these examples, LDAP providesfunctionality to physically segregate content that is being searched atruntime.

In one example, a wireless service provider may handle its own identitymanagement services for their core business (e.g., regular calls), whileusing services provided by IDCS in support of a short term marketingcampaign. In this case, Cloud Cache “flattens” LDAP when it has a singleset of users and a single set of groups that it runs against the cloud.In one embodiment, any number of Cloud Caches may be implemented inIDCS.

Distributed Data Grid

In one embodiment, the cache cluster in IDCS is implemented based on adistributed data grid, as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Pub. No.2016/0092540, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated byreference. A distributed data grid is a system in which a collection ofcomputer servers work together in one or more clusters to manageinformation and related operations, such as computations, within adistributed or clustered environment. A distributed data grid can beused to manage application objects and data that are shared across theservers. A distributed data grid provides low response time, highthroughput, predictable scalability, continuous availability, andinformation reliability. In particular examples, distributed data grids,such as, e.g., the Oracle Coherence data grid from Oracle Corp., storeinformation in-memory to achieve higher performance, and employredundancy in keeping copies of that information synchronized acrossmultiple servers, thus ensuring resiliency of the system and continuedavailability of the data in the event of failure of a server.

In one embodiment, IDCS implements a distributed data grid such asCoherence so that every microservice can request access to shared cacheobjects without getting blocked. Coherence is a proprietary Java-basedin-memory data grid, designed to have better reliability, scalability,and performance than traditional relational database management systems.Coherence provides a peer to peer (i.e., with no central manager),in-memory, distributed cache.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example of a distributed data grid 1200 whichstores data and provides data access to clients 1250 and implementsembodiments of the invention. A “data grid cluster”, or “distributeddata grid”, is a system comprising a plurality of computer servers(e.g., 1220 a, 1220 b, 1220 c, and 1220 d) which work together in one ormore clusters (e.g., 1200 a, 1200 b, 1200 c) to store and manageinformation and related operations, such as computations, within adistributed or clustered environment. While distributed data grid 1200is illustrated as comprising four servers 1220 a, 1220 b, 1220 c, 1220d, with five data nodes 1230 a, 1230 b, 1230 c, 1230 d, and 1230 e in acluster 1200 a, the distributed data grid 1200 may comprise any numberof clusters and any number of servers and/or nodes in each cluster. Inan embodiment, distributed data grid 1200 implements the presentinvention.

As illustrated in FIG. 12, a distributed data grid provides data storageand management capabilities by distributing data over a number ofservers (e.g., 1220 a, 1220 b, 1220 c, and 1220 d) working together.Each server of the data grid cluster may be a conventional computersystem such as, for example, a “commodity x86” server hardware platformwith one to two processor sockets and two to four CPU cores perprocessor socket. Each server (e.g., 1220 a, 1220 b, 1220 c, and 1220 d)is configured with one or more CPUs, Network Interface Cards (“NIC”),and memory including, for example, a minimum of 4 GB of RAM up to 64 GBof RAM or more. Server 1220 a is illustrated as having CPU 1222 a,Memory 1224 a, and NIC 1226 a (these elements are also present but notshown in the other Servers 1220 b, 1220 c, 1220 d). Optionally, eachserver may also be provided with flash memory (e.g., SSD 1228 a) toprovide spillover storage capacity. When provided, the SSD capacity ispreferably ten times the size of the RAM. The servers (e.g., 1220 a,1220 b, 1220 c, 1220 d) in a data grid cluster 1200 a are connectedusing high bandwidth NICs (e.g., PCI-X or PCIe) to a high-performancenetwork switch 1220 (for example, gigabit Ethernet or better).

A cluster 1200 a preferably contains a minimum of four physical serversto avoid the possibility of data loss during a failure, but a typicalinstallation has many more servers. Failover and failback are moreefficient the more servers that are present in each cluster and theimpact of a server failure on a cluster is lessened. To minimizecommunication time between servers, each data grid cluster is ideallyconfined to a single switch 1202 which provides single hop communicationbetween servers. A cluster may thus be limited by the number of ports onthe switch 1202. A typical cluster will therefore include between 4 and96 physical servers.

In most Wide Area Network (“WAN”) configurations of a distributed datagrid 1200, each data center in the WAN has independent, butinterconnected, data grid clusters (e.g., 1200 a, 1200 b, and 1200 c). AWAN may, for example, include many more clusters than shown in FIG. 12.Additionally, by using interconnected but independent clusters (e.g.,1200 a, 1200 b, 1200 c) and/or locating interconnected, but independent,clusters in data centers that are remote from one another, thedistributed data grid can secure data and service to clients 1250against simultaneous loss of all servers in one cluster caused by anatural disaster, fire, flooding, extended power loss, and the like.

One or more nodes (e.g., 1230 a, 1230 b, 1230 c, 1230 d and 1230 e)operate on each server (e.g., 1220 a, 1220 b, 1220 c, 1220 d) of acluster 1200 a. In a distributed data grid, the nodes may be, forexample, software applications, virtual machines, or the like, and theservers may comprise an operating system, hypervisor, or the like (notshown) on which the node operates. In an Oracle Coherence data grid,each node is a Java virtual machine (“JVM”). A number of JVMs/nodes maybe provided on each server depending on the CPU processing power andmemory available on the server. JVMs/nodes may be added, started,stopped, and deleted as required by the distributed data grid. JVMs thatrun Oracle Coherence automatically join and cluster when started.JVMs/nodes that join a cluster are called cluster members or clusternodes.

Architecture

Each client or server includes a bus or other communication mechanismfor communicating information, and a processor coupled to bus forprocessing information. The processor may be any type of general orspecific purpose processor. Each client or server may further include amemory for storing information and instructions to be executed byprocessor. The memory can be comprised of any combination of randomaccess memory (“RAM”), read only memory (“ROM”), static storage such asa magnetic or optical disk, or any other type of computer readablemedia. Each client or server may further include a communication device,such as a network interface card, to provide access to a network.Therefore, a user may interface with each client or server directly, orremotely through a network, or any other method.

Computer readable media may be any available media that can be accessedby processor and includes both volatile and non-volatile media,removable and non-removable media, and communication media.Communication media may include computer readable instructions, datastructures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signalsuch as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and includes anyinformation delivery media.

The processor may further be coupled via bus to a display, such as aLiquid Crystal Display (“LCD”). A keyboard and a cursor control device,such as a computer mouse, may be further coupled to bus to enable a userto interface with each client or server.

In one embodiment, the memory stores software modules that providefunctionality when executed by the processor. The modules include anoperating system that provides operating system functionality eachclient or server. The modules may further include a cloud identitymanagement module for providing cloud identity management functionality,and all other functionality disclosed herein.

The clients may access a web service such as a cloud service. The webservice may be implemented on a WebLogic Server from Oracle Corp. in oneembodiment. In other embodiments, other implementations of a web servicecan be used. The web service accesses a database which stores clouddata.

As disclosed, embodiments implement a microservices based architectureto provide cloud-based multi-tenant IAM services. In one embodiment,each requested identity management service is broken into real-timetasks that are handled by a microservice in the middle tier, andnear-real-time tasks that are offloaded to a message queue. Accordingly,embodiments provide a cloud-scale IAM platform.

IAM Functionality Example

In one embodiment, IAM functionality is implemented by software storedin memory or other computer readable or tangible medium, and executed bya processor.

A request is received for performing an identity management service. Inone embodiment, the request includes a call to an API that identifiesthe identity management service and a microservice configured to performthe identity management service. In one embodiment, the microservice isa self-contained module that can communicate with othermodules/microservices, and each microservice has an unnamed universalport that can be contacted by others. For example, in one embodiment, avariety of applications/services 602 may make HTTP calls to IDCS APIs touse IDCS microservices 614 as illustrated in FIG. 6. In one embodiment,a microservice is a runtime component/process.

In one embodiment, the request includes a URL. In one embodiment, themicroservice is identified in a prefix of the URL. In one embodiment, aresource portion of the URL identifies the API. In one embodiment, ahost portion of the URL identifies a tenancy of a resource related tothe request. For example, in a URL such as “host/microservice/resource”in the web environment of IDCS, a microservice is characterized byhaving a specific URL prefix, e.g., “host/oauth/v1” where the actualmicroservice is “oauth/v1”, and under “oauth/v1” there are multipleAPIs, e.g., an API to request tokens: “host/oauth/v1/token”, an API toauthenticate a user: “host/oauth/v1/authorize”, etc. That is, the URLimplements a microservice, and the resource portion of the URLimplements an API. Accordingly, multiple APIs are aggregated under thesame microservice. In one embodiment, the host portion of the URLidentifies a tenant (e.g.,https://tenant3.identity.oraclecloud.com:/oauth/v1/token”).

The request is then authenticated. In one embodiment, the request isauthenticated by a security gate such as Cloud Gate as described herein,for example, with reference to web routing tier 610 in FIG. 6 and/orcloud gate 702 in FIG. 7.

The microservice is then accessed based on the API, for example, asdescribed herein with reference to the IDCS “API platform” and accessingmicroservices in IDCS middle tier 614 in FIG. 6. In one embodiment,communicating with the microservice is configured through an unnameduniversal port of the microservice. In one embodiment, the unnameduniversal port of a microservice is a standard communication channelthat the microservice exposes by convention (e.g., as a conventionalHTTP port) and that allows any other module/microservice within the sameservice to talk to it. In one embodiment, the microservice provides oneor more capabilities by exposing one or more APIs. In one embodiment,communication with the microservice is implemented only through the oneor more APIs. That is, the microservice can be reached/contacted only bymaking calls to such APIs. In one embodiment, communication with themicroservice is configured according to a lightweight protocol. In oneembodiment, the lightweight protocol includes HTTP and REST. In oneembodiment, the request includes a call to a RESTful HTTP API.Accordingly, one embodiment provides dispatching functionality. EachHTTP request includes a URI and a verb. The embodiment parses theendpoint (host/service/resource) from the URI and combines it with theHTTP verb (e.g., POST, PUT, PATCH, or DELETE) to dispatch (or invoke)the appropriate method of the appropriate module. This pattern is commonto REST and is supported by various packages (e.g., Jersey).

The identity management service is then performed by the microservice,for example, as described herein with reference to the IDCS “APIplatform” and accessing microservices in IDCS middle tier 614 in FIG. 6.In one embodiment, the microservice is stateless, horizontally scalable,and independently deployable. In one embodiment, each physicalimplementation of the microservice is configured to securely supportmultiple tenants. In one embodiment, the identity management serviceincludes a login service, an SSO service, a federation service, a tokenservice, a directory service, a provisioning service, or an RBACservice.

LDAP to SCIM Proxy Service

In certain hybrid cloud deployments, identities are first migrated froman on-premises LDAP server to a IDCS SCIM server. Legacy on-premisesLDAP-based applications then access these identities in the IDCS SCIMserver through an intermediary or proxy service. In certain embodiments,the Cloud Cache (discussed above) provides an LDAP to SCIM proxy servicethat allows legacy LDAP-based applications to interact seamlessly withthe IDCS SCIM server. Newly-deployed on-premises SCIM-based applicationsmay access the IDCS SCIM server directly, as well as those legacyon-premises LDAP-based applications that have been re-written to supportSCIM.

In a hybrid cloud deployment, the LDAP to SCIM proxy serviceadvantageously provides a single source of truth for identities, andavoids the complexities, disadvantages and limitations of identityfederation and/or synchronization configurations.

During migration from the on-premises LDAP server to the IDCS SCIMserver, the hierarchy associated with each migrated LDAP entry ispreserved. Because SCIM represents data in a flat tree structure with nohierarchy, embodiments of the present invention provide a virtual LDAPhierarchy in IDCS so that every SCIM user and group can be associatedwith the correct LDAP specific organizations, domains and units.

FIG. 13 depicts an LDAP to SCIM proxy service architecture 1300, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In thisembodiment, on-premises enterprise system 1320 includes an LDAP to SCIMproxy service 1322, as well as several LDAP-based application servers1324, 1326, 1328. The LDAP to SCIM proxy service 1322 may be provided byCloud Cache (described above), which communicates with IDCS 1310 andLDAP-based application servers 1324, 1326, 1328. IDCS 1310 provides manydifferent services, such as, for example, single sign on (“SSO”)services, identity management (“IDM”) services, security token services(“STS”), authentication services, etc. In other embodiments, LINUX-basedpluggable Authentication Modules (PAM), such as, for example, the SystemSecurity Services Daemon (“SSSD”), etc., can be configured to interceptand authenticate OS calls against an LDAP-based identity backend. ThesePAM modules may be configured to work with the LDAP to SCIM proxyservice 1322 to indirectly perform OS authentication against IDCS.

In many embodiments, communications between LDAP to SCIM proxy service1322 and IDCS 1310 are secured via OAuth. The LDAP to SCIM proxy service1322 may be configured with an IDCS url, OAuth clientID and secret.These details may be used by the LDAP to SCIM proxy service 1322 duringruntime to obtain an access token. Depending on the AppRole membershipsdefined for this OAuth Client in IDCS 1310, the access token willdetermine the set of privileges for LDAP to SCIM proxy service 1322 toquery IDCS admin endpoints (Users/Groups/PasswordPolicy) for aparticular tenant. If the access token expires, LDAP to SCIM proxyservice 1322 will obtain a new access token. In one embodiment, thesedetails are configured after installation, while in another embodiment,these details are provided during installation phase itself.

Typically, user 1332 runs one or more web applications 1330 on a desktopor laptop computer, tablet, smart phone, etc., which communicate, overone or more networks, with LDAP-based applications running on LDAP-basedapplication servers 1324, 1326, 1328 within on-premises enterprisesystem 1320. Web applications 1330 may communicate directly with IDCS1310, as well as with cloud-based systems 1340, such as, for example,websites published by WordPress deployed on AWS (“Amazon Web Services”).Cloud-based systems 1340 and cloud-based applications 1350, such as, forexample, Facebook, Linedln, Twitter, etc., may communicate with IDCS1310 for identity management and user authentication purposes.

FIGS. 14A to 14I present a method for providing an LDAP to SCIM proxyservice, in accordance with embodiments of the present invention. FIG.14A depicts method 1400, FIGS. 14B, 14C, 14D and 14E depict variousembodiments of translating (1420) an LDAP request to a SCIM request, andFIGS. 14F, 14G, 14H and 14I depict various embodiments of translating(1460) a SCIM response to an LDAP response, as discussed below.

Referring to FIG. 14A, LDAP to SCIM proxy service 1322 receives (1410)an LDAP request from an LDAP-based application running on one of theLDAP-based application servers 1324, 1326, 1328, translates (1420) theLDAP request to a SCIM request, forwards (1430) the SCIM request to aSCIM server within IDCS 1310, receives (1440) a SCIM response from theSCIM server within IDCS 1310, translates (1450) the SCIM response to anLDAP response, and forwards (1460) the LDAP response to the LDAP-basedapplication, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In many embodiments, LDAP to SCIM proxy service 1322 includes severalfunctional modules, such as, for example, an access control list (“ACL”)evaluation module, an LDAP result set cache module, anLDAP-to-SCIM/SCIM-to-LDAP protocol conversion module, a SCIM RESTutility module, a configuration module, etc.

In certain embodiments, the ACL evaluation module receives customerdefinitions for Global Access Control Lists (ACLs), which restrict thelist of operations that a user may perform on the LDAP entries. If thebind user does not satisfy the ACL, the operation is not forwarded toIDCS 1310, and an LDAP error may be indicated.

In certain embodiments, the LDAP result set cache module storesinformation related to previously-searched Users, Groups, membershipsand password policy in a cache, which significantly improves performancefor frequently executed search queries. Each entry in the cache mayrepresent a query object and its results. In one embodiment, a maximumage for each entry and a maximum size for the cache is specified whenthe cache is created. Whenever an LDAP MODIFY operation occurs or IDCS1310 notifies that a change has occurred, then the LDAP result set cachemodule invalidates the related entry in the cache. Invalidation alsooccurs when an entry exceeds the maximum age, or when the cache exceedsthe maximum size.

In certain embodiments, the LDAP-to-SCIM/SCIM-to-LDAP protocolconversion module converts the LDAP operations ADD, MODIFY, DELETE, andBIND to SCIM operations, converts SCIM responses to LDAP responses,converts exceptions obtained from executing SCIM REST calls torespective LDAP exceptions, flattens LDAP requests to match the SCIMflat tree structure, and reconstructs the DN and LDAP entries for IDCSresponse.

In certain embodiments, the SCIM REST utility module is built using IDCSClient library. After the SCIM operation is prepared, the SCIM RESTutility module communicates with IDCS 1310.

In certain embodiments, the configuration module receives customerdetails such as, for example, IDCS URL, OAuth Client ID/Secret,User/Group/PasswordPolicy ObjectClass Mappings & Attribute Mappings, anRDn Attribute to be used for these SCIM resourceTypes, LDAP search realmDn, etc. In certain embodiments, a new SCIM resourceType, different thanthe standard SCIM resource types (User, Group and PasswordPolicy) canalso be registered with LDAP to SCIM proxy service. In theseembodiments, the end customer provides details, such as, for example,the customer's equivalent SCIM resourceType rest endpoint details alongwith the customer's LDAP RDn attribute and objectclass and attributemapping details. These customer details may be maintained in an IDCSserver, and the LDAP to SCIM proxy service 1322 will fetch these valuesfrom IDCS 1310.

In these embodiments, LDAP to SCIM proxy service 1322 maps LDAP searchesrequests and filters to SCIM search requests and filters, converts LDAP“ADD,” “MODIFY,” “DELETE” and “BIND” operations to SCIM operations,converts SCIM responses to LDAP responses, converts exceptions (e.g.,error codes) obtained from executing SCIM REST calls to respective LDAPexceptions (e.g., error codes), flattens LDAP requests to match the SCIMflat tree structure and reconstructs the DN and LDAP entries forresponse entries, etc.

LDAP to SCIM proxy service 1322 may include a Bind handler thatvalidates the username/password provided in an LDAP BIND request againstthe IDCS SCIM server. The Bind handler performs aPOST/PasswordAuthenticator for IDCS SCIM server to validate thepassword. The authentication may fail if the User status is locked ordisabled in IDCS. An LDAP Bind operation works for both IDCS users andIDCS AppIDs.

LDAP to SCIM proxy service 1322 may include a Search handler that mapsLDAP search requests to SCIM search requests, converts LDAP searchfilters to SCIM search filters, handles LDAP return attributes mentionedin the LDAP search request, maps SCIM search responses to LDAP searchresponses, etc. The scope of an LDAP search request may be BASE, ONELEVEL or SUBTREE.

When the search scope is BASE, the Search handler analyzes the searchfilter provided in the search request, and a GET call will be performedon /Users if the filter has (objectclass=<list of userobjectclassconfigured>), and on/Roles if the filter has (objectclass=<list of validgroupobjectclasses configured>) and on/PasswordPolicy if(objectclass=<list of valid passwordpolicy objectclasses>). If nospecific object class is defined, then baseDN is analyzed to search fora User/Group or Password Policy container. If no specific containerexists, then a REST GET call is performed on /Users, /Groups,and/PasswordPolicy. The REST GET call has an additional filter appendedto the search filter present in the search request. In one embodiment,the additional filer is “<SCIM attribute corresponding to first RDnattribute in search request's baseDN> eq <value of the RDn attribute>.”

When search scope is ONE LEVEL, the Search handler determines whetherthe baseDN mentioned in the search contains the REALM. If so, then thesearch request is processed; if not, then an error is returned. TheSearch handler takes the baseDN entry provided in the search andperforms a REST GET call on /Users if the filter has(objectclass=<userobjectclass>), and on/Groups if the filter has(objectclass=<groupobjectclass>) and on/PasswordPolicy if(objectclass=<list of valid passwordpolicy objectclasses>). The searchis performed on /Users, /Groups and /PasswordPolicy endpoints if nospecific objectclass is specified in the searchFilter. The existingfilter will be modified to add an additional filter. For a FLAThierarchy, the searchBaseDN in the search request is not considered, noadditional filter is introduced and all entries under /Users or/GroupsIDCS REST endpoints that satisfy the original request filter criteriaare returned. For entries returned by /Users REST endpoint, user objectclasses are added and corresponding attributes are returned; similarsteps are taken for entries returned by/Groups and/PasswordPolicyendpoint.

When search scope is SUBTREE, the search operation is the same as theONE_LEVEL search operation for a FLAT hierarchy because all entries arestored on the IDCS SCIM server in a flat structure.

In certain embodiments, the Search handler parses the LDAP search filterto form the SCIM request using a cloud-based library, such as, forexample, an IDCS Java Client API Library. For each attribute in an LDAPexpression, a corresponding SCIM attribute is determined based on anLDAP attribute to SCIM attribute mapping table. For example, FIG. 21depicts an LDAP attribute to SCIM attribute mapping table, according toan embodiment of the present invention described in more detail below.Similarly, for each LDAP LOGIAL or COMPARISON operator in an LDAPexpression, a corresponding SCIM LOGICAL or COMPARISON operator isdetermined.

The Search handler converts LDAP return attributes in the LDAP searchrequest to corresponding SCIM return attributes, which are used as queryparameters in the GET request, e.g., attributes=<comma separated list ofSCIM return attributes>. In the response sent by the IDCS SCIM server,only the values of these attributes are obtained and returned. The SCIMresponse contains the SCIM User/Group entries, which are mapped to LDAPentries. The LDAP entries are forwarded to the LDAP-based application inan LDAP search response.

For entries returned on /Users endpoint, DN=<User RDn defined inconfiguration>=<Value of corresponding SCIM attribute>, <User Containerdefined in configuration>, <Search Realm configured by client in LDAP toSCIM proxy service>, while for entries returned on/Groups endpoint,DN=<Group RDn defined in configuration>=<Value of corresponding SCIMattribute>, <Group container defined in configuration>, <Search Realmconfigured by client in LDAP to SCIM proxy service>. The last parameteris an LDAP Search Realm configured by client in LDAP to SCIM proxyservice.

Referring to FIG. 14B, the Search handler translates (1420) the LDAPrequest into a SCIM request, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. The Search handler parses (1421) the LDAP search filter inthe LDAP search request into a plurality of LDAP attributes and one ormore LDAP operators. For each LDAP attribute, the Search handlerdetermines (1422) a corresponding SCIM attribute based on an LDAPattribute to SCIM attribute mapping table. For each LDAP operator, theSearch handler determines (1423) a corresponding SCIM operator. For eachLDAP return attribute, the Search handler converts (1424) the LDAPreturn attribute into a corresponding SCIM return attribute. The Searchhandler then creates (1425) a SCIM search filter based on thecorresponding SCIM attributes and the corresponding SCIM operators, andcreates (1426) a SCIM search request including the SCIM search filterand the corresponding SCIM return attributes.

Referring to FIG. 14F, the Search handler translates (1460) the SCIMresponse into an LDAP response by mapping (1461) each SCIM entry in theSCIM search response to a corresponding LDAP entry, and creating (1462)an LDAP search response having the corresponding LDAP entries.

In certain embodiments, a local attribute mapping file forUsers/Groups/PasswordPolicy may be maintained and packaged as part of anLDAP to SCIM proxy service binary. One embodiment of an attributemapping file for a user resource that maps the user's IDCS SCIMattributes to some of the user's LDAP inetorgperson and posixobjectclass attributes is:

   userName = uid  name.formatted = cn  name.familyName = sn name.givenName = givenName  name.middleName = middleName  displayName =displayName  title = title  preferredLanguage = preferredlanguage password = userPassword  emails.value = mail  phoneNumbers.value =telephonenumber  photos.value = photo  addresses.formatted =postalAddress  addresses.streetAddress = street  addresses.locality = l addresses.region = st  addresses.postalCode = postalCode addresses.country = c  groups.value = ismemberof x509Certificates.value = userCertificate  meta.created =createTimestamp  meta.lastModified = modifyTimestamp urn\:ietf\:params\:scim\:schemas\:extension\:enterprise\:2.0\:User\:employeeNumber = employeeNumber urn\:ietf\:params\:scim\:schemas\:extension\:enterprise\:2.0\:User\:manager.value = manager urn\:ietf\:params\:scim\:schemas\:extension\:enterprise\:2.0\:User\:organization = o urn\:ietf\:params\:scim\:schemas\:oracle\:idcs\:extension\:posix\:User\:loginShell = loginShell urn\:ietf\:params\:scim\:schemas\:oracle\:idcs\:extension\:posix\:User\:gecos = gecos urn\:ietf\:params\:scim\:schemas\:oracle\:idcs\:extension\:posix\:User\:uidNumber = uidNumber urn\:ietf\:params\:scim\:schemas\:oracle\:idcs\:extension\:posix\:User\:gidNumber = gidNumber urn\:ietf\:params\:scim\:schemas\:oracle\:idcs\:extension\:posix\:User\:homeDirectory = homeDirectory

One embodiment of an attribute mapping file for a group resource thatmaps the group's IDCS SCIM attributes to some of the group's LDAPgroupofuniquenames and posix objectclass attributes:

   displayName = cn  members.value = uniquemember urn\:ietf\:params\:scim\:schemas\:oracle\:idcs\:extension\:posix\:Group\:gidNumber = gidNumber urn\:ietf\:params\:scim\:schemas\:oracle\:idcs\:extension\:group\:Group\:description = description  meta.created = createTimestamp meta.lastModified = modifyTimestamp

In other embodiments, attribute mappings may be defined in IDCS 1310. Ifthe LDAP attribute's data type is different from the mapped SCIMattribute's data type, then LDAP to SCIM proxy service 1322intelligently processes the input value (i.e., LDAP request or SCIMresponse), and converts this value to suit the target data type value(i.e., SCIM request or LDAP response). If the conversion to target datatype value fails, then a suitable error is raised.

Additional embodiments for mapping LDAP requests are discussed in moredetail below.

Similarly, LDAP to SCIM proxy service 1322 may include an Add handlerthat maps LDAP Add requests to SCIM Add requests and maps SCIM Addresponses to LDAP Add responses, a Modify handler that maps LDAP Modifyrequests to SCIM Modify requests and maps SCIM Modify responses to LDAPModify responses, a Delete handler that maps LDAP Delete requests toSCIM Delete requests and maps SCIM Delete responses to LDAP Deleteresponses, etc.

The Add handler maps LDAP ADD requests to SCIM ADD requests, andconverts the SCIM results to LDAP results. In certain embodiments, theAdd handler only processes User and Role additions. The container entryin the baseDN of the entry to be added is analyzed to determine whethera POST is necessary on /Users or /Groups. The DN value is “scraped off”to recover the entry name from first RDn attribute. All attributes ofthe User/Group present in the LDAP ADD request are mapped tocorresponding SCIM attributes. A SCIM REST POST request is constructedon the SCIM endpoint for/users or/roles, respectively, depending onwhether the User ObjectClass or the Group ObjectClass is present, andthe data of ADD operation is sent to the IDCS SCIM server. In certainembodiments, the IDCS Client library may be used for constructing theSCIM ADD request.

Referring to FIG. 14C, the Add handler translates (1420) the LDAPrequest into a SCIM request, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. For each LDAP attribute, the Add handler determines (1422) acorresponding SCIM attribute based on an LDAP attribute to SCIMattribute mapping table. The Add handler then converts (1427) the LDAPadd request into a SCIM add request that includes a REST post operationperformed on /Users or/Roles.

Referring to FIG. 14G, the Add handler translates (1460) the SCIMresponse into an LDAP response by converting (1463) the SCIM addresponse into an LDAP add response.

Table 1 presents a series of checks and corresponding actions performedby the Add handler.

TABLE 1 Index Check Action 1 If the baseDN mentioned in LDAP “Operationunwilling to ADD request does not contain User perform” result isreturned. RDn or Role RDn. 2 If baseDN does not contain RDns as “no suchobject” result is defined in entity configuration file for returned.Users and Roles 3 If the add request includes an “undefined attributetype” attribute which is not defined in result is returned. LDAP to SCIMattribute mapping 4 If the baseDN defined in search is not “invalid DNsyntax” result a proper LDAP Dn is returned. 5 If requestor does nothave rights to “insufficient access rights” add an entry result isreturned. 6 If the baseDN contains user RDn and “operation notsupported” if objectclasses does not contain user result is returned.objectclasses. 7 If the baseDN contains “operation not supported”groupSearchBase Dn and if result is returned. objectclasses does notcontain group objectclasses.

Table 2 presents a mapping of SCIM responses to LDAP results for the ADDoperation.

TABLE 2 Index SCIM Response LDAP Result 1 If the entry to be added doesnot “object class violation” contain a mandatory attribute requiredresult is returned telling to create entry in SCIM server whichmandatory attribute is missing. 2 If the entry already exists in theSCIM “entry already exists” server result is returned. 3 If the addrequest includes an attribute “invalid attribute syntax” with a valuethat does not comply with result is returned. the SCIM syntaxconstraints(Http status 400 with scimType invalidSyntax) 4 If the addoperation was processed “success” result is successfully (Http status201) returned.

The Modify handler maps LDAP MODIFY requests to SCIM MODIFY requests,and converts the SCIM responses to LDAP results. The DN of the entry tobe modified is analyzed to determine whether the entry is a User orGroup based on the type of container that is defined. The DN value is“scraped off” to recover the entry name from the first RDn attribute. ASCIM GET call is performed on /Users or/Groups, depending on whether theresource is a User resource or Group resource, with the filter <SCIMattribute corresponding to first LDAP RDn present in Modify request'sDN>=<Value>. The SCIM GET call returns the “id” of the SCIM entry. Allattributes of the User/Group present in the LDAP MODIFY request aremapped to corresponding SCIM attributes. A SCIM REST PATCH request isconstructed, by appending the “id” on the SCIM endpoint for /Usersor/Roles respectively and sent to the IDCS SCIM server. In certainembodiments, the IDCS Client library may be used for constructing SCIMrequest.

Referring to FIG. 14D, the Modify handler translates (1420) the LDAPrequest into a SCIM request, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. For each LDAP attribute, the Modify handler determines (1422)a corresponding SCIM attribute based on an LDAP attribute to SCIMattribute mapping table. The Modify handler then converts (1428) theLDAP modify request into a SCIM modify request that includes a RESTpatch operation performed on /Users or/Roles.

Referring to FIG. 14H, the Modify handler translates (1460) the SCIMresponse into an LDAP response by converting (1464) the SCIM addresponse into an LDAP add response.

Table 3 presents a series of checks and corresponding actions performedby the Modify handler.

TABLE 3 Index Check Action 1 If baseDN does not contain either user“Operation unwilling to RDN or group RDN perform” result is returned. 2If the modify request attempts to target “Undefined attribute anattribute type that is not defined in type” result is returned. LDAP toSCIM attribute mapping 3 If the baseDN defined in LDAP modify “InvalidDN syntax” request is not a proper LDAP Dn result is returned. 4 Ifrequestor does not have rights to “Insufficient access modify an entryrights” result is returned.

Table 4 presents a mapping of SCIM responses to LDAP results for theMODIFY operation.

TABLE 4 Index SCIM Response LDAP Result 1 If the modify includes anattribute with “Invalid attribute syntax” a value that does not complywith the result is returned. SCIM attribute syntax constraints (HttpsStatus 400 with invalidValue message) 2 If the modify requests attemptsto “Operation not change the value of an immutable supported” resultSCIM attribute (Http status code 400 is returned. with mutable exceptionmessage) 3 If the modify operation was processed “Success” result issuccessfully (Http status 200) returned.

The Delete handler maps LDAP DELETE requests to SCIM DELETE requests,and converts the SCIM responses to LDAP results. The DN value is“scraped off” to recover the entry name from the first RDn attribute. ASCIM GET call is performed on the /Users or/Groups REST endpoint,depending on whether the User or Group RDn is present, with the filter<SCIM attribute corresponding to LDAP RDn>=<Value>. The SCIM GET callreturns the “id” of the SCIM entry. A SCIM REST DELETE request isconstructed, and sent on the SCIM endpoint for /Users or/Roles byappending the “id” of the SCIM entry in the resource path. In certainembodiments, the IDCS Client library may be used for constructing SCIMDELETE request.

Referring to FIG. 14E, the Delete handler translates (1420) the LDAPrequest into a SCIM request, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. For each LDAP attribute, the Delete handler determines (1422)a corresponding SCIM attribute based on an LDAP attribute to SCIMattribute mapping table. The Delete handler then converts (1429) theLDAP delete request into a SCIM delete request that includes a RESTdelete operation performed on /Users or/Roles.

Referring to FIG. 14H, the Delete handler translates (1460) the SCIMresponse into an LDAP response by converting (1465) the SCIM deleteresponse into an LDAP delete response.

Table 5 presents a series of checks and corresponding actions performedby the Delete handler.

TABLE 5 Index Check Action 1 If baseDN mentioned in LDAP “Operationunwilling to DELETE request does not contain perform” result isreturned. either user RDN or group RDN 2 If the specified DN ismalformed “invalid DN syntax” result is returned. 3 If the requesterdoes not have “insufficient access rights” permission to perform thedelete result result is returned. operation

Table 6 presents a mapping of SCIM responses to LDAP results for theDELETE operation.

TABLE 6 Index SCIM Response LDAP Result 1 If LDAPDelete is done on a DNthat “no such object” result is does not returns any “id” value whenreturned. SCIM GET call is done with the required filter. 2 If the SCIMdelete operation completes “success” result is successfully and theentry is removed returned. (Http status 204)

FIG. 15 presents a diagram 1500 of an on-premises LDAP backendconfiguration, in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention. In this example, three domain components (“dc”) 1510 arespecified, i.e., “us,” “oracle,” and “com.” Two organizational units(“ou”) 1520, 1522 are specified, i.e., “SALES” and “HR.” Under the“SALES” organizational unit, two locations (“I”) 1530, 1532 arespecified, i.e., “APAC,” and “AMER,” and under the “APAC” location, twocommon names (“cn”) 1540, 1542 are specified, i.e., “USERS,” and“GROUPS.” Under cn 1540, a user 1550 is depicted, while under cn 1542, a“Group 1” 1551 is depicted. Under cn 1542, a 1552 and a “Group 2” 1553are depicted. Under ou 1522, a user 1554 and a “Group 2” 1555 aredepicted.

FIG. 16A presents a graphical user interface for an IDCS administratorconsole 1600, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.IDCS administrator console 1600 is displayed after an administrator logsin to the IDCS using a standard login screen (not shown). Top panel 1610allows the administrator to view the Dashboard, Users and Notifications.Selection of “Users” icon 1620 displays “Users” page 1630, whichdisplays information for all of the users within a particular identitydomain, or tenancy, including the administrator (i.e., administratorinformation 1640). For example, the information for user “Sarah Taylor”1642 may be displayed.

FIG. 16B presents IDCS administrator console 1600, in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention. Selection of “Groups” icon 1620displays “Groups” page 1630, which displays the groups within aparticular identity domain, or tenancy, such as the “Contractors” group1640 and the “Regular Employees” group 1642.

FIG. 16C presents IDCS administrator console 1600, in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention. Selection of “Regular Employees”icon 1642 displays “Regular Employees” page 1660, which displays all ofthe members of this group. For example, the information for user “SarahTaylor” 1642 may be displayed.

Virtual Directory System for LDAP to SCIM Proxy Service

Generally, each entry in an LDAP directory information tree (“DIT”)includes at least certain kinds of information, e.g., a distinguishedname (“DN”) and several attribute-value pairs. The DN uniquelyidentifies the entry in the DIT, and provides its position within thehierarchy. Each LDAP attribute-value pair includes an attribute name andone or more values. The DN for each entry includes at least one relativedistinguished name (“RDN”), except for the root DSE (DSA-specificentry). The root DSE provides general information about the LDAP server,and has a null DN, i.e., a DN with zero RDNs, represented as an emptystring. Each RDN includes at least one attribute-value pair, such as,for example, “uid=mraj,” etc., and the order of the RDNs specifies theposition of the entry within the DIT, such as, for example,“uid=mraj,l=apac,cn=users,dc=oracle,dc=com,” where the right-most RDNspecifies the level in the hierarchy that is closest to the root.Attributes may include, for example, “dc” for domain component, “ou” fororganizational unit, “I” for location, “cn” for common name, “uid” foruser id, etc.

FIG. 17 presents a graphical user interface for a directory servicesmanager application 1700, in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention. The directory services manager application includes adirectory manager tab 1710 and a topology manager tab 1720. Thedirectory manager includes a data browser tab 1730 with data tree pane1740 that depicts a virtual LDAP hierarchy for IDCS User/Group entries.For example, the administrator and user Sarah Taylor are depicted astree entries 1742 and 1744, respectively. The directory managercommunicates with Cloud Cache in LDAP, and Cloud Cache in turncommunicates to IDCS in SCIM and fetches the User/Group entries andreconstructs the hierarchy information associated with them. The detailsof the group whose CN is “Regular Employees” are depicted in group pane1750. For example, the group information for user Sarah Taylor isdepicted as table entry 1752.

In many embodiments, the LDAP to SCIM proxy service 1322 includes aclient-side virtual directory system with caching ability that allowson-premises LDAP-based applications to interact with the cloud-basedSCIM server by performing the LDAP to SCIM protocol conversion. Thevirtual directory system maps the LDAP tree-based hierarchy to the SCIMflat data model. In the hybrid scenario discussed above, the virtualdirectory system advantageously preserves the LDAP hierarchy after theidentities have been migrated from the on-premises LDAP-based servers tothe SCIM-based server in IDCS. For example, the virtual LDAP hierarchydepicted in data tree pane 1740 of FIG. 17 represents at least a portionof the virtual directory system.

In many embodiments, Cloud Cache provides the LDAP to SCIM proxy service1322 with caching ability for on-premise LDAP-based applications. CloudCache provides LDAP to SCIM protocol conversion, and may be installed asan on-premise directory server. Cloud Cache will receive LDAP requestson an LDAP listener port, and will perform LDAP basic encoding rules(“BER”) protocol encoding/decoding as an on-premise enterprise server.Cloud Cache may communicate with the SCIM server using a privilegedaccount, such as, for example, an OAuth Client, and supportsconfigurable attribute and object class mappings, search controls andfilter mapping, error code mapping, and flattening of the LDAP treehierarchy to match the flat SCIM structure, as discussed herein. CloudCache intelligently determines the type of SCIM resource (e.g.,Users/Groups) to consider based on object classes specified in a searchrequest filter and the presence of User and Group containers.Advantageously, Cloud Cache may scale based on LDAP load, and may cacheLDAP data on-premise in order to avoid multiple requests to the SCIMserver. An end user may define global access control lists (“ACLs”). Fora particular bind user, Cloud Cache evaluates all global ACLs andreturns responses.

In certain embodiments, only “User,” “Group” and “PasswordPolicy”resources are supported by the LDAP to SCIM proxy service 1322.

LDAP containers from the on-premise LDAP directory may be converted toUser/Group attributes of the SCIM protocol, and users/groups in the onpremise LDAP directory are retained in the SCIM directory, as discussedin more detail herein.

In certain embodiments, a custom plugin/WFE intercepts incoming LDAPrequests and outgoing responses and flattens the LDAP tree to match theSCIM structure. Multi-level hierarchy under the user searchbase issupported. This plugin also converts LDAP to SCIM protocol, maps LDAP toSCIM attribute/object class, and may record all Cloud Cache monitoringinformation in the backend.

REST interfaces may be used for communicating monitoring data to thecloud. For example, a scheduler job may use a MonitorData/Log handler tofetch the monitoring data (that was stored by Monitoring plugin/WFE) andsend the info to an appropriate IDCS server at regular intervals. AnOutbound HTTP connection from the scheduled task to an appropriate IDCSserver may be used for sending monitoring information.

In many embodiments, the functionality of the LDAP to SCIM proxy service1322 depends, at least in part, on how entries are migrated from thehierarchical on-premises LDAP directory server to the IDCS SCIM server.While users in the on-premise LDAP directory server might be presentunder several containers and at different hierarchical levels, whenthese users are migrated to the IDCS SCIM server, they will be presentonly under the /Users REST endpoint.

In a first embodiment, LDAP containers may be stored as attributes of anIDCS SCIM server entry. For example, if an LDAP user was present in anLDAP directory under an “ou=Sales” container, then, after migration, the“ou” attribute of the SCIM user is populated with the value “Sales”after migration. This approach relies on User and Group schemaextensions and a complex DN re-construction rule that is specified inorder to build back the DN from User/Group attributes at runtime.

In a second embodiment, LDAP containers may be mapped to new IDCS SCIMgroups, and all of the SCIM users or role entries of the directoryserver become members of those groups. For example, if an LDAP user waspresent in an LDAP directory under an “ou=Sales” container, then, aftermigration, a new IDCS SCIM “Sales” group is created and thatcorresponding SCIM user is made a member of the “Sales” group. Incertain embodiments, LDAP containers may be mapped to special markerIDCS SCIM groups, and all of the SCIM users or role entries of thedirectory server become members of those groups. These IDCS groups maybe appropriately marked to distinguish them from generic IDCS groups.

In a third embodiment, the DN values of the LDAP entries may be mappedto an externalID attribute of a SCIM entry during migration. Forexample, if an LDAP user entry in an LDAP directory included “DN:uid=user1, ou=Sales, dc=com,” then, after migration, the SCIM user'sexternalID attribute will have the value “uid=user1, ou=Sales, dc=com.”Advantageously, the third embodiment does not increase the complexity ofthe IDCS SCIM server schema because hierarchy information is simplystored in the externalID attribute of the DN value of an entry.Alternatively, the DN values of the LDAP entries may be mapped to acustom attribute in Users/Groups.

In a fourth embodiment, all entries (Users/Groups/etc.) have a footprintcreated in a new SCIM resource that uses relevant position markers toreconstruct their exact position (or DN) in the LDAP Hierarchy.

In certain embodiments, a Virtual Directory server may be configured forsmooth processing of LDAP requests. This typically includes a List ofObjectClasses that are required to identify a user entry, such as, forexample, inetorgperson, organizationperson, and person, a list ofObjectClasses required to identify a group entry, such as, for example,groupOfUniqueNames, a Realm, which is the root DN of a subtree inClient's LDAP Directory on which a client application will perform LDAPoperations, such as, for example, “ou=Sales, dc=com,” and anEntryStructure that has a value of HIERARCHY or FLAT. The HIERARCHYvalue indicates that Cloud Cache will evaluate and rebuild the hierarchyfor IDCS entries. The FLAT value indicates that Cloud Cache will notsupport the hierarchy, and will return all entries as if they were underthe same container.

FIGS. 18A to 18E present a method 1800 for providing an on-premisesvirtual directory system, in accordance with embodiments of the presentinvention.

An LDAP Directory Information Tree (DIT) is provided (1810). The LDAPDIT includes a plurality of entries that describe LDAP containers LDAPusers and LDAP groups, and each entry includes a Distinguished Name (DN)and a plurality of LDAP attribute-value pairs. The DN provides LDAP DIThierarchical information that uniquely identifies the entry anddescribes a hierarchical position of the entry in the LDAP DIT, andincludes a plurality of attribute-value pairs. Each LDAP attribute-valuepair includes an attribute name and one or more attribute values.

A SCIM directory is provided (1820). The SCIM directory includes aplurality of SCIM resource entries that describe SCIM users and SCIMgroups. Each SCIM resource entry includes a plurality of attributes, andincludes an externalID and a resource type identifying the SCIM resourceentry as belonging to a User or a Group. Each SCIM attribute includes aname and one or more values.

The LDAP entries are migrated (1830) to the SCIM directory. Importantly,LDAP DIT hierarchy information for each LDAP DIT entry is preserved,i.e., stored, in the SCIM directory. When an LDAP ADD or MODIFYoperation occurs, the SCIM directory may be updated to reflect the newor modified LDAP DIT hierarchy information.

In one embodiment, LDAP containers are mapped (1832) to SCIM user orSCIM group attributes, as described above. For each LDAP user or LDAPgroup present in a particular LDAP container having an attribute nameand an attribute value, a SCIM attribute is added to the correspondingSCIM user or SCIM group based on the attribute name and the attributevalue. For example, the attribute name may be “ou,” and the attributevalue may be “sales.”

In another embodiment, LDAP containers are mapped to special marker SCIMgroups. For each LDAP user present in a first LDAP container having anattribute name and an attribute value, a new SCIM group is created(1834) based on the attribute name and attribute value, and thecorresponding SCIM user is added to the new SCIM group. For example, theattribute name may be “ou,” and the attribute value may be “sales.”

In a further embodiment, LDAP user DNs are mapped (1836) to SCIM userexternalIDs, as described above. For each LDAP user, the correspondingSCIM user externalID is set to the DN of the LDAP user. For example, theDN may be “uid=user1, ou=Sales, dc=com.”

In another further embodiment, LDAP group DNs are mapped (1838) to SCIMgroup externalIDs, as described above. For each LDAP group, thecorresponding SCIM group externalID is set to the DN of the LDAP group.For example, the DN may be “cn=groups, 1=apac, ou=Sales, dc=com.”

The SCIM directory is queried, and a virtual LDAP hierarchy is created(1840) based on the LDAP DIT information stored in the SCIM directory.

A graphical user interface (GUI) for a directory services applicationmay be displayed (1850) that includes a data tree pane 1740 that depictsthe virtual LDAP hierarchy.

Hierarchical Processing of LDAP Operations Against a SCIM Directory ViaLexicon Syntactic Pattern Analysis for a Virtual Directory System

Embodiments of the present invention advantageously provide a method foranalyzing and evaluating LDAP operations, such as, for example, add,delete, modify, search, etc., that are performed against the SCIMdirectory in which the SCIM resources have LDAP distinguished namesstored in their respective externalIDs. As discussed above, thedistinguished name (“dn”) attribute value of an LDAP DIT entry containsthe names of all the parent containers in an appropriate sequence in asingle string. This value is appropriately parsed and syntacticallyanalyzed to extract the LDAP hierarchical placement of the respectiveSCIM entry in the SCIM directory. Thus, LDAP requests containing LDAPhierarchy constraints are processed correctly against the SCIMdirectory, and the required LDAP response is properly constructed andreturned.

FIG. 19 presents an LDAP tree structure 1900, in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention. In this example, one domaincomponent (“dc”), i.e., “com,” and one organizational unit (“ou”), i.e.,“Sales,” are specified. Under the “Sales” organizational unit, a useridentifier (“uid”), i.e., “user1,” two locations (“I”), i.e., “East” and“West,” and one common name (“cn”), i.e., “group1,” are specified.

Generally, an LDAP search retrieves information about all of the objectswithin a specified scope that have certain characteristics. A searchscope and a search base are always specified, and an optional filter mayalso be included in the search. The search base generally defines thelocation (i.e., the base object) in the LDAP directory from which theLDAP search begins, and the search scope defines the depth of the searchwithin the search base. More particularly, the search base specifies thedistinguished name (“dn”) of the base object, and the search scope maybe “Base,” which specifies a search of the base object only, “OneLevel,” which specifies a search of objects immediately subordinate tothe base object but does not include the base object, or “Subtree,”which specifies a search of the base object and the entire subtree thatdepends from the distinguished name of the base object. The optionalfilter allows certain entries in the subtree and excludes others.Several exemplary searches of the LDAP tree structure 1900 follow.

LDAP Search Operation—1^(st) Example

In a first search example, the scope is “Base,” the searchBaseDN is“uid=user2,l=East,ou=Sales,dc=com,” and the filter is “&(objectclass=inetorgperson) (sn=test).”

First, a check is performed to determine whether the baseDN specified inthe search request contains the REALM. If yes, then the search requestis processed further; if no, then an error is identified. In oneembodiment, LDAP searches operate only on a DN that is equal to, or is achild to, the REALM DN.

The LDAP filter in the search request is then analyzed to see if(objectclass=<user_object_class>) is present. If yes, the search isissued on /Users endpoint. Similarly, if the filter contains(objectclass=<group_object_class>), then a search request will be issuedon the/Groups endpoint. If the search request contains neither, then thesearch request will be made on both the /Users and/Groups endpoints.Accordingly, for this search request, a GET will issue on the /Usersendpoint.

In a “SEARCH1” example, the original LDAP filter in the LDAP searchrequest is modified as follows: <Original_Filter is converted to a SCIMFilter, and all the expressions that contain the objectClass attributeare removed> and externalID eq<DN as mentioned in the search baseDN>.Accordingly, for the 1^(st) example, the SCIM search query is: SCIMFilter->“name.familyName eq test and externalID equid=user2,l=East,ou=Sales,dc=com”.

As noted above, when entries are created in the IDCS SCIM directoryafter migration, the externalID value is populated to preserve the LDAPhierarchy. A customer might decide not to maintain hierarchy informationfor new entries created in the SCIM directory. Accordingly, these usersor groups should also be returned by the search. To meet this case,along with a search with above filter, another search may be done.

In a “SEARCH2” example, the original LDAP filter in search request ismodified as follows: <Original_Filter is converted to a SCIM filter, andall the expressions that contain the objectClass attribute are removed>and <SCIM attribute corresponding to first RDN of searchBaseDN> eq<valueof the first RDN of searchBaseDN> and not externalID pr. For thisexample, it will be “name.familyName eq test and username eq user2 andnot (externalID pr)” where ‘pr’ is the present operator.

LDAP Search Operation—2^(nd) Example

In a second search example, the scope is “One Level,” the searchBaseDNis “ou=Sales,dc=com,” and the filter is “(objectclass=*).”

First, a check is performed to determine whether the baseDN specified inthe search request contains the REALM. If yes, then the search requestis processed further; if no, then error is indicated.

The LDAP filter in the search request is then analyzed to see if(objectclass=<user_object_class>) is present. If yes, the search isissued on the /Users endpoint. Similarly, if the filter contains(objectclass=<group_object_class>), then a search request will be issuedon the/Groups endpoint. If the search request contains neither, then thesearch request will be made on both the /Users and/Groups endpoints.Accordingly, for this search request, a GET will issue on both the/Users and /Groups endpoints.

In a “SEARCH1” example, the original LDAP filter present in searchrequest is modified as follows: <Original_Filter is converted to a SCIMFilter, and all the expressions that contain the objectClass attributeare removed> and externalID co<DN as mentioned in the search baseDN>where the operator ‘co’ means contains. Accordingly, for this example,the SCIM search query is: SCIM Filter->“externalID co ou=Sales,dc=com”.The search will return entries with the following externalIDs:

  uid=user1, ou=Sales, dc=com cn=group1, ou=Sales, dc=com uid=user2,l=East, ou=Sales, dc=com cn=group2, l=East, ou=Sales, dc=com uid=user3,l=East, ou=Sales, dc=com cn=group3, l=East, ou=Sales, dc=com

However, since this is a “One Level” LDAP search, only the followingentries should be returned: uid=user1,ou=Sales,dc=com andcn=group1,ou=Sales,dc=com. Accordingly, the “One Level” search requestincludes an additional post processing step that is performed after theGET request has been issued. This post processing step scans externalIDvalues of returned entries and allows only those entries to be specifiedin the response that have just one RDN=Value prefixed beforesearchBaseDN (“ou=Sales,dc=com”).

In a “SEARCH2” example, for entries that are created after migrationthat do not have an externalID attribute populated, another search willbe performed for them with the following filter: <Original_Filter isconverted to a SCIM Filter, and all expressions that contain theobjectClass attribute are removed> and not externalID pr. For thisexample, the search filter will be simply “not externalID pr.” Theoriginal filter contained only object class expressions which areremoved after analysis, so only the additional filter will be present.

LDAP Search Operation—3^(rd) Example

In the third search example, the scope is “Subtree,” the searchBaseDN is“l=East,ou=Sales,dc=com,” and the filter is “(objectclass=*).”

First, a check is performed to determine whether the baseDN specified inthe search request contains the REALM. If yes, then the search requestis processed further; if no, then error is identified.

The LDAP filter in the search request is then analyzed to see if(objectclass=<user_object_class>) is present. If yes, the search isissued on the /Users endpoint. Similarly, if the filter contains(objectclass=<group_object_class>), then a search request will be issuedon the/Groups endpoint. If the search request contains neither, then thesearch request will be made on both the /Users and/Groups endpoints.Accordingly, for this search request, a GET will issue on both the/Users and /Groups endpoints.

The original LDAP filter present in the search request is modified asfollows: <Original_Filter is converted to a SCIM Filter, and all theexpressions that contain the objectClass attribute are removed> andexternalID co<DN as mentioned in the search baseDN> where the operator‘co’ means contains. Accordingly, for this example, the SCIM searchquery is: SCIM Filter->“externalID co l=East,ou=Sales, dc=com.” Thesearch will return entries with the following externalIDs:

  uid=user2, l=East, ou=Sales, dc=com cn=group2, l=East, ou=Sales,dc=com

For a “Subtree” search, no post processing is required after issuing theSCIM GET request.

For entries that are created after migration that do not have anexternalID attribute populated, another search will be performed withthe following filter: <Original_Filter is converted to a SCIM Filter,and all expressions that contain the objectClass attribute are removed>and not externalID pr. For this example, the search filter will besimply “not externalID pr.”

In certain embodiments, “One Level” or “Subtree” searches will returnentries for which the externalID attribute has not been populatedregardless of the specified searchBaseDN. The externalID attribute of anentry might not be populated for new entries that are created by theIDCS SCIM server after the old entries have been migrated from theon-premises LDAP server to the IDCS SCIM directory, or when it isdesired not to maintain the hierarchy during migration. In theseembodiments, when the externalID is not populated during or aftermigration, then the hierarchy information is lost.

If the value of EntryStructure, discussed above, is “HIERARCHY,” onlySEARCH1 will be performed. Similarly, if the value of EntryStructure is“FLAT,” only SEARCH2 will be performed. And, if the value ofEntryStructure is “BOTH” (e.g., the case when migrated entries haveexternalID value but new entries do not have any externalID value),SEARCH1 will be performed followed by SEARCH2. Objectclasses may beremoved from the search filter because the IDCS SCIM server entrieswon't have objectclass attributes populated for them, and theobjectclass iattribute n filter not needed once the REST endpoint towhich the search request is issued is known.

These embodiments advantageously preserve hierarchy information,simplifying DN reconstruction of an entry (i.e., constructing LDAPresponse from SCIM response), do not require DN reconstruction rule tobe defined, do not require dynamic extensions to IDCS User/Group schemaas part of migration, and provide error free and efficientimplementation (e.g., less round trips required with server) ofLDAPSearch operations supporting all scopes, i.e., “Base,” “One Level,”and “Subtree.”

FIGS. 20A to 20K present a method 2000 for hierarchical processing ofLDAP operations against a SCIM directory, in accordance with embodimentsof the present invention.

An LDAP Directory Information Tree (DIT) is provided (2010). The LDAPDIT includes a plurality of entries that describe LDAP containers, usersand groups, and each entry includes a Distinguished Name (DN) and aplurality of LDAP attribute-value pairs. The DN provides LDAP DIThierarchical information that uniquely identifies the entry anddescribes a hierarchical position of the entry in the LDAP DIT. EachLDAP attribute-value pair includes an attribute name and one or moreattribute values.

A SCIM directory is provided (2020). The SCIM directory includes aplurality of SCIM resource entries that describe SCIM users and groups.Each SCIM resource entry includes a plurality of attributes, andincludes an externalID and a resource type identifying the SCIM resourceentry as belonging to a user or a group. Each SCIM attribute includes aname and one or more values.

The LDAP entries are migrated (2030) to the SCIM directory. Importantly,LDAP DIT hierarchy information for each LDAP DIT entry is preserved,i.e., stored, in the SCIM directory. In certain embodiments, LDAP userDNs and group DNs are mapped to SCIM user externalIDs and groupexternalIDs, as described above. In other embodiments, SCIM user orgroup schema may be extended to introduce a new SCIM attribute wheretheir corresponding DN values are stored. For each LDAP user or group,the corresponding SCIM user or group externalID is set to the DN of theLDAP user or group. For example, an LDAP user DN may be “uid=user1,ou=Sales, dc=com.” When an LDAP add or modify operation occurs, the SCIMdirectory may be updated to reflect the new or modified LDAP DIThierarchy information, as discussed below.

An LDAP operation request is received (2035) from an LDAP-basedapplication over the network. The LDAP operation request may be an LDAPadd request, an LDAP delete request, an LDAP modify request, an LDAPsearch request, an LDAP Bind DN operation request, an LDAP modify DNoperation request, etc.

The LDAP operation request is processed (2040).

The LDAP operation response is then returned (2090) to the LDAP-basedapplication over the network. For an LDAP add request, an LDAP addresponse is sent to the LDAP-based application over the network. For anLDAP delete request, an LDAP delete response is sent to the LDAP-basedapplication over the network. For an LDAP modify request, an LDAP modifyresponse is sent to the LDAP-based application over the network. For anLDAP search request, an LDAP search response is sent to the LDAP-basedapplication over the network.

FIG. 20B presents a flow diagram 2050 depicting processing an LDAP addrequest, according to an embodiment of the present invention. An LDAP DNvalue and a plurality of LDAP attribute-value pairs are first extracted(2051) from the LDAP add request. The plurality of LDAP attribute-valuepairs are converted (2052) to respective SCIM attributes. A new SCIMentry is created (2053) in the SCIM directory, using a POST command, forexample. When the new SCIM entry is created, the LDAP DN value is storedin the externalID of the new SCIM entry, the respective SCIM attributesare stored in the new SCIM entry, and the resource type of the new SCIMentry is set to user or group based on the user or group containerpresent in DN value. Alternatively, the resource type of the new SCIMentry is set to user or group based on the objectclass present in theLDAPAdd request. The new SCIM entry is then converted (2054) to avirtual LDAP DIT entry, which includes converting the externalID of thenew SCIM entry to a virtual LDAP DN, and converting the SCIM attributesof the new SCIM entry to virtual LDAP attribute-value pairs. An LDAP addresponse is then created (2055) that includes the virtual LDAP DITentry. FIG. 20C presents a flow diagram 2050 depicting processing anLDAP add request, according to another embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 20D presents a flow diagram 2060 depicting processing an LDAPdelete request, according to an embodiment of the present invention. AnLDAP DN value is first extracted (2061) from the LDAP delete request.The SCIM directory is searched (2062) to find the SCIM entry whoseexternalID matches the DN value extracted from the LDAP delete request,using a GET command, for example. The matching SCIM entry is thendeleted (2063) from the SCIM directory, using a DELETE command, forexample. An LDAP delete response is created (2064) that includes theresults of the delete operation. FIG. 20E presents a flow diagram 2060depicting processing an LDAP delete request, according to anotherembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 20F presents a flow diagram 2070 depicting processing an LDAPmodify request, according to an embodiment of the present invention. AnLDAP DN value and a plurality of LDAP attribute-value pairs are firstextracted (2071) from the LDAP modify request. The plurality of LDAPattribute-value pairs are converted (2072) to respective SCIMattributes. The SCIM directory is searched (2073) to find the SCIM entrywhose externalID matches the DN value extracted from the LDAP modifyrequest, using a GET command, for example. The matching SCIM entry ismodified (2074) in the SCIM directory, using a PATCH command, forexample. When the matching SCIM entry is modified, the respective SCIMattributes are stored in the modified SCIM entry. The modified SCIMentry is then converted (2075) to a virtual LDAP DIT entry, whichincludes converting the externalID of the modified SCIM entry to avirtual LDAP DN, and converting the SCIM attributes of the modified SCIMentry to virtual LDAP attribute-value pairs. An LDAP modify response isthen created (2076) that includes the virtual LDAP DIT entry. FIG. 20Gpresents a flow diagram 2050 depicting processing an LDAP modifyrequest, according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 20H presents a flow diagram 2080 depicting processing an LDAPsearch request, according to an embodiment of the present invention. Asearch BaseDN value and a search scope value are first extracted (2081)from the LDAP search request. A SCIM search request is then created(2082), the SCIM search request including an externalID value that isbased on the search BaseDN value and the search scope value. The SCIMdirectory is then searched (2083) using the SCIM search request to findone or more matching SCIM entries, using a GET command, for example.Each matching SCIM entry is then converted (2084) to a virtual LDAP DITentry, which includes converting the externalID of the matching SCIMentry to a virtual LDAP DN, and converting the SCIM attributes of thematching SCIM entry to virtual LDAP attribute-value pairs. An LDAPsearch response is then created (2085) that includes each virtual LDAPDIT entry.

In certain embodiments, the LDAP search request may include an LDAPfilter that has a plurality of LDAP filter attributes. In theseembodiments, the LDAP filter may be extracted from the LDAP searchrequest, and the plurality of LDAP filter attributes may be converted torespective SCIM filter attributes. A SCIM filter may be created based onthe SCIM filter attributes, and then added to the SCIM search request.

In certain embodiments, after the LDAP filter is extracted from thesearch request, the LDAP filter may be analyzed to determine whether auser object class or a group object class is present. If a user objectclass is present, then a SCIM search may be issued against the /Usersendpoint. Similarly, if a group object class is present, then a SCIMsearch may be issued against the/Groups endpoint. If neither a userobject class or a group object class is present, then SCIM searches maybe issued against both /Users and/Groups endpoints.

In certain embodiments, if the search scope is “Base,” then theexternalID value is set to be equal (i.e., “eq”) to the search BaseDNvalue; if the search scope is “One Level” or “Subtree,” then theexternalID value is set to contain (i.e., “co”) the search BaseDN value.Additionally, if the search scope is “One Level,” then the externalIDvalue of each matching SCIM entry is scanned, and only those matchingSCIM entries that have one Relative Distinguished Name (RDN) prefixedbefore the search Base DN are converted to a virtual LDAP DIT entry.

FIG. 20I presents a flow diagram 2080 depicting processing an LDAPsearch request for a “Base” search, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. FIG. 20J presents a flow diagram 2080 depictingprocessing an LDAP search request for a “One Level” search, according toan embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 20K presents a flow diagram2080 depicting processing an LDAP search request for a “Subtree Level”search, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Process for Preserving LDAP Hierarchy in SCIM Server Using SpecialMarker Groups in SCIM Server for a Virtual Directory System

As noted above, in a virtual directory system, hierarchy mapping isrequired for LDAP to SCIM conversion because LDAP uses a tree basedhierarchy data model and SCIM uses a flat data model, as discussedabove.

Embodiments of the present invention advantageously provide a method forpreserving and evaluating hierarchy information represented by the LDAPdistinguished name attribute of an entry that was migrated to a SCIMserver by introduction of special marker groups in SCIM server'secosystem. All LDAP operations may be processed appropriately accordingto LDAP hierarchy constraints by checking the membership of theseidentities with respective marker groups to find out their relativeposition in LDAP data model.

In one embodiment, a corresponding group in SCIM is created for everycontainer in LDAP. Additionally, a child container that is present belowa parent container in the LDAP hierarchy is migrated to SCIM as a nestedmember to the group representing parent container. For an LDAP Addoperation, if an entry's DN is: “uid=testUser1, cn=Users, ou=Sales,l=East, dc=example, dc=com,” then the user will be made a member tofollowing groups—Users, Sales, East, Example, Com. The Users group willbe member of Sales group and Sales group will be member of East and soon. The groups “Example” and “Com” may be skipped if end user confirms“dc=example, dc=com” as the Realm of the directory server. For anLDAPDelete, user's memberships from certain marker groups will beremoved. An LDAPModify requires no special processing with respect tothese marker groups, because an LDAPModify changes the attribute valuesand does not affect existing marker group membership. Whenever a new orgneeds to be introduced in IDCS, a new special marker group will becreated and its relative membership with other marker groups defined.

This embodiment advantageously preserves hierarchy information, does notrequire dynamic extensions to IDCS User/Group schema as part ofmigration, and provides error free implementation of LDAPSearchoperations supporting all scopes, i.e., “Base,” “One Level,” and“Subtree.” Several examples are provided below for a search baseconfigured with Cloud Cache that is “dc=example, dc=com.”

For an LDAPSearch with “Subtree” scope and a searchBaseDN of “ou=Sales,l=East, dc=example, dc=com,” the SCIM filter is “<OriginalLDAPFiltermapped to SCIM Filter> AND <groups.value eq<id of ou=Sales>> AND<groups.value eq<id of I-East>>”. For an LDAPSearch with “One Level”scope and a searchBaseDN of “ou=Sales, l=East, dc=example, dc=com,”First, a search is performed to find the immediate members of “ou=Sales”that are group entries. Next, a search is performed for Users that aremember of “ou=Sales” and “l=East” but are not members of the immediategroups below “ou=Sales.” This ensures that only “One Level” entries arereturned. The SCIM filter for a “One Level” search is“<OriginalLDAPFilter mapped to SCIMFilter> AND <groups.value eq<id ofou=Sales>> AND <groups.value eq<id of l=East>> AND (NOT(groups.valueeq<id of any immediate group present under ou=Sales))”. For anLDAPSearch with “Base” scope, the first RDN of searchBaseDN is anon-container value, so here the searchbaseDn is“uid=testUser1,cn=Users,ou=Sales, l=East,dc=example,dc=com.”

One exemplary filter may be “(groups.value eq ‘<id of Users group’>) AND(groups.value eq ‘<id of Sales group>’) AND (groups.value eq ‘<id ofEast group>’) AND (groups.value eq ‘<id of Example group>’) AND(groups.value eq ‘<id of com group>’) AND (<SCIM attr corresponding touid>=′testUser1′) AND (groups.value neq ‘<id of groups immediate membersof Users group>’). The corresponding SCIM filter is “<OriginalLDAPFiltermapped to SCIMFilter> AND <username(SCIM attr for uid) eq testUser1> AND<groups.value eq<id of cn=Users>> AND <groups.value eq<id of ou=Sales>>AND <groups.value eq<id of l-East>> AND (NOT(groups.value eq<id of anyimmediate group present under ou=Sales))”.

In another embodiment, LDAP hierarchy information is persisted as aseparate resource in the SCIM server. For every entry (user, group, orgor any other container) in LDAP, an entry is created in this SCIMresource. Left and right markers are associated with the entry, whichindicate the position and hierarchy of the node. In this embodiment, ifthe node is a leaf node with no children, then right=left+1. If a nodehas children, then that particular node's left marker will be less thanthe left and right markers of its children, and the right marker will begreater than the left and right marker of all of the node's children.All the children node's left and right marker values are containedwithin the parent node's left and right marker. Advantageously, thehierarchy of any node is clearly described and stored in the SCIMserver. Exemplary flowcharts are provided after the Abstract that depicthow the hierarchy is processed and preserved for LDAPADD, DELETE andSEARCH requests for this embodiment.

Mapping SCIM Resources to LDAP Entries Using Subtype Attributes

In certain embodiments, LDAP subtype is used to map SCIM resources toLDAP entries for complex multi-valued attributes. As discussed above,SCIM uses a flat data model and LDAP uses a tree based hierarchy datamodel, and the data structure of an actual resource/entry in SCIM andLDAP are very different. SCIM has four attribute types, i.e., a simpleattribute, a simple multi-valued attribute, a simple complex attribute,and a complex multi-valued attribute (“CMVA”).

FIG. 21 presents exemplary SCIM attributes 2100 of a user, in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention. A simple attribute is a singularattribute (an attribute with 0 . . . 1 values), whose value is aprimitive, e.g., “String.” A simple multi-valued attribute is amulti-valued attribute (an attribute with 0 . . . n values, n is aninteger and >1), whose value is a primitive. A simple complex attributeis a singular attribute whose value is a composition of one or moresimple/simple multi-valued attributes. Each of the components is calleda sub-attribute of the complex attribute. A CMVA has multiple values ofa singular attribute, whose value is a composition of one or moresimple/simple multi-valued attributes.

As noted above, the structure of attributes in LDAP is quite differentthan SCIM. That is, each LDAP attribute presents its value in a singlerow in the LDAP directory. In other words, for simple attributes,simple-multivalued attributes, or sub-attributes of simple complexattributes, one-to-one mapping on their names and values between SCIMand LDAP is achieved. However, it is not possible to map CMVAsub-attributes to a single LDPA row using known techniques.

FIG. 22 depicts one-to-one mapping 2200 for simple, simple multi-valued,and simple complex attributes between SCIM and LDAP, in accordance withan embodiment of the invention. LDPA subtypes are used to solve themapping problem for CMVA. A subtype in LDAP is an optional expressionadded after the LDAP attribute name, separated by semicolon “;”, i.e., arow in LDAP directory can be IdapAttributeName; [subtype]:value.Providing different subtype expressions for SCIM sub-attributes indifferent set of values and keeping it the same within one set allowsfor uniquely distinguishing and mapping any sub-attribute from any setof SCIM values into one LDAP row. More importantly, when converting thecorresponding LDAP rows back to SCIM data, the SCIM sub-attributes canbe grouped within one set based on subtype without further manipulation.To achieve this, at least one sub-attribute is always present (its‘required’ property in schema is defined as true) for a CMVA, and ahashcode is computed from its value and then assigned as the name of theLDPA subtype.

In certain embodiments, for a CMVA sub-attribute of a particular set ofvalues, the name of its LDAP row is:

           ldapAttributeName; <hash code computed from requiredsub-attribute's value in set>

FIG. 23 depicts usage of LDAP subtype to map 2300 between SCIM and LDAPdata, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In“x509Cerfificates” CMVA, a “value” sub-attribute is required. Then, ineach set of values, the value of “value” is used to compute the hashcode which appends as a subtype after the LDAP attribute name for allthe sub-attributes in that particular set. In this example, “−531173273”and “−747760815” are two subtypes that are used to group two sets ofsub-attributes when LDAP attributes are mapped back to SCIM.

Frequently, the same value occurs for the required sub-attribute, suchas “value,” but they belong to different “types.”

FIG. 24 depicts usage of LDAP subtype (with “type” sub-attribute) toachieve mapping 2400 between SCIM and LDAP data, in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention. In CMVA “emails”, the “work” typeand “recovery” type emails are both “bjensen@example.com”. Todistinguish these two sets of values, the “required” property of “type”sub-attribute is set to be true, which means to append the value of“type” after hash code when forming the subtype.

In certain embodiments, the name of LDAP row is:

            ldapAttributeName; <hash code computed from the requiredsub-attribute's value in the set>;       <“type” sub-attribute's valueif it is required>

In this example, there are three subtypes as 1312496136; work,1312496136; recovery, and −1254147633; home, to uniquely define thethree set of email values.

In certain embodiments, an LDAP to SCIM proxy service 1322 allows legacyLDAP-based applications to interact seamlessly with an IDCS SCIM server.Newly-deployed on-premises SCIM-based applications may access the IDCSSCIM server directly, as well as those legacy on-premises LDAP-basedapplications that have been re-written to support SCIM. In a hybridcloud deployment, the LDAP to SCIM proxy service 1322 advantageouslyprovides a single source of truth for identities, and avoids thecomplexities, disadvantages and limitations of identity federationand/or synchronization configurations.

In certain embodiments, an LDAP to SCIM proxy service 1322 receives anLDAP request from an LDAP-based application running on an LDAP-basedapplication server, translates the LDAP request to a SCIM request,forwards the SCIM request to a SCIM server within the IDCS. The LDAP toSCIM proxy service 1322 then receives a SCIM response from the SCIMserver within the IDCS, translates the SCIM response to an LDAPresponse, and forwards the LDAP response to the LDAP-based application.

In certain embodiments, a method for processing LDAP (LightweightDirectory Access Protocol) operations against a SCIM (System forCross-domain Identity Management) directory includes providing an LDAPDirectory Information Tree (DIT) including a plurality of LDAP DITentries that describe LDAP containers, users and groups, providing aSCIM directory including a plurality of SCIM resource entries thatdescribe SCIM users and groups, migrating the plurality of LDAP DITentries to the SCIM directory, receiving, from an LDAP-based applicationover a network, an LDAP operation request, processing the LDAP operationrequest, and returning an LDAP operation response to the LDAP-basedapplication over the network.

In certain embodiments, each LDAP DIT entry includes a DistinguishedName (DN) and a plurality of LDAP attribute-value pairs. The DN providesLDAP DIT hierarchical information that uniquely identifies the LDAP DITentry and describes a hierarchical position of the LDAP DIT entry in theLDAP DIT, and each LDAP attribute-value pair including an attribute nameand one or more attribute values. Each SCIM resource entry includes aplurality of SCIM attributes including an externalID and a resource typeidentifying the SCIM resource entry as belonging to a user or a group,and each SCIM attribute including a name and one or more values.Migrating the plurality of LDAP DIT entries to the SCIM directoryincludes storing the LDAP DIT hierarchical information in the SCIMdirectory by mapping LDAP user DNs and group DNs to SCIM userexternalIDs and group externalIDs. The LDAP operation request mayinclude an LDAP add request, an LDAP delete request, an LDAP modifyrequest, or an LDAP search request.

Several embodiments are specifically illustrated and/or describedherein. However, it will be appreciated that modifications andvariations of the disclosed embodiments are covered by the aboveteachings and within the purview of the appended claims withoutdeparting from the spirit and intended scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-readable medium having instructionsstored thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processorto hierarchically process LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)operations against a SCIM (System for Cross-domain Identity Management)directory, the processing comprising: providing an LDAP DirectoryInformation Tree (DIT) including a plurality of LDAP DIT entries thatdescribe LDAP containers, users and groups, each LDAP DIT entryincluding a Distinguished Name (DN) and a plurality of LDAPattribute-value pairs, the DN providing LDAP DIT hierarchicalinformation that uniquely identifies the LDAP DIT entry and describes ahierarchical position of the LDAP DIT entry in the LDAP DIT, each LDAPattribute-value pair including an attribute name and one or moreattribute values; providing a SCIM directory including a plurality ofSCIM resource entries that describe SCIM users and groups, each SCIMresource entry including a plurality of SCIM attributes including anexternalID and a resource type identifying the SCIM resource entry asbelonging to a user or a group, each SCIM attribute including a name andone or more values; migrating the plurality of LDAP DIT entries to theSCIM directory, including storing the LDAP DIT hierarchical informationin the SCIM directory by mapping LDAP user DNs and group DNs to SCIMuser externalIDs and group externalIDs, respectively; receiving, from anLDAP-based application over a network, an LDAP operation requestincluding an LDAP add request, an LDAP delete request, an LDAP modifyrequest, or an LDAP search request; processing the LDAP operationrequest; and returning an LDAP operation response to the LDAP-basedapplication over the network.
 2. The computer-readable medium of claim1, wherein said processing the LDAP operation request includes: for theLDAP add request: extracting an LDAP DN value and a plurality of LDAPattribute-value pairs from the LDAP add request, converting theplurality of LDAP attribute-value pairs to respective SCIM attributes,creating a new SCIM entry in the SCIM directory, including storing theLDAP DN value in the externalID of the new SCIM entry, storing therespective SCIM attributes in the new SCIM entry, and setting theresource type of the new SCIM entry to user or group based on the useror group container present in the LDAP DN value or an objectclassdefined in the LDAP add request, converting the new SCIM entry to avirtual LDAP DIT entry, including converting the externalID of the newSCIM entry to a virtual LDAP DN, and converting the SCIM attributes ofthe new SCIM entry to virtual LDAP attribute-value pairs, and creatingan LDAP add response that includes the virtual LDAP DIT entry; andwherein said returning the LDAP operation response to the LDAP-basedapplication over the network includes: for the LDAP add request: sendingthe LDAP add response to the LDAP-based application over the network. 3.The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein said processing theLDAP operation request includes: for the LDAP delete request: extractingan LDAP DN value from the LDAP delete request, searching the SCIMdirectory to find a SCIM entry having an externalID that matches theLDAP DN value extracted from the LDAP delete request, deleting thematching SCIM entry from the SCIM directory, and creating an LDAP deleteresponse; and wherein said returning the LDAP operation response to theLDAP-based application over the network includes: for the LDAP deleterequest: sending the LDAP delete response to the LDAP-based applicationover the network.
 4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, whereinsaid processing the LDAP operation request includes: for the LDAP modifyrequest: extracting an LDAP DN value and a plurality of LDAPattribute-value pairs from the LDAP modify request, converting theplurality of LDAP attribute-value pairs to respective SCIM attributes,searching the SCIM directory to find a SCIM entry having an externalIDthat matches the LDAP DN value extracted from the LDAP modify request,modifying the matching SCIM entry in the SCIM directory, includingstoring the respective SCIM attributes in the modified SCIM entry,converting the modified SCIM entry to a virtual LDAP DIT entry,including converting the externalID of the modified SCIM entry to avirtual LDAP DN, and converting the SCIM attributes of the modified SCIMentry to virtual LDAP attribute-value pairs, and creating an LDAP modifyresponse that includes the virtual LDAP DIT entry; and wherein saidreturning the LDAP operation response to the LDAP-based application overthe network includes: for the LDAP modify request: sending the LDAPmodify response to the LDAP-based application over the network.
 5. Thecomputer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein said processing the LDAPoperation request includes: for the LDAP search request: extracting asearch base DN value and a search scope value from the LDAP searchrequest, creating a SCIM search request including an externalID valuethat is based on the search base DN value and the search scope value,searching the SCIM directory to find one or more SCIM entries that matchthe SCIM search request, converting each matching SCIM entry to avirtual LDAP DIT entry, including converting the externalID of eachmatching SCIM entry to a virtual LDAP DN, and converting the SCIMattributes of each matching SCIM entry to virtual LDAP attribute-valuepairs, and creating an LDAP search response that includes each virtualLDAP DIT entry; and wherein said returning the LDAP operation responseto the LDAP-based application over the network includes: for the LDAPsearch request: sending the LDAP search response to the LDAP-basedapplication over the network.
 6. The computer-readable medium of claim5, wherein said processing the LDAP operation request further includes:for the LDAP search request: extracting an LDAP filter from the LDAPsearch request, the LDAP filter including a plurality of LDAP filterattributes, converting the plurality of LDAP filter attributes to SCIMfilter attributes, creating a SCIM filter based on the SCIM filterattributes, and adding the SCIM filter to the SCIM search request. 7.The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein said processing theLDAP operation request further includes: for the LDAP search request: ifthe search scope value is base: setting the externalID value of the SCIMfilter such that the externalID value is equal to the search base DNvalue, if the search scope value is one level: setting the externalIDvalue of the SCIM filter such that the externalID value contains thesearch base DN value, scanning the externalID value of each matchingSCIM entry, and converting only those matching SCIM entries having oneRelative Distinguished Name (RDN) prefixed before the search base DNvalue to a virtual LDAP DIT entry, and if the search scope value issubtree: setting the externalID value of the SCIM filter such that theexternalID value contains the search base DN value.
 8. Thecomputer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein said processing the LDAPoperation request further includes: for the LDAP search request:analyzing the LDAP filter to determine whether a user object class or agroup object class is present, if a user object class is present in theLDAP filter, then the SCIM directory is searched against a usersendpoint, if a group object class is present in the LDAP filter, thenthe SCIM directory is searched against a groups endpoint, and if neithera user object class or a group object class is present in the LDAPfilter, then SCIM searches are issued against both the users and thegroups endpoints.
 9. A method for hierarchically processing LDAP(Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) operations against a SCIM(System for Cross-domain Identity Management) directory, the methodcomprising: providing an LDAP Directory Information Tree (DIT) includinga plurality of LDAP DIT entries that describe LDAP containers, users andgroups, each LDAP DIT entry including a Distinguished Name (DN) and aplurality of LDAP attribute-value pairs, the DN providing LDAP DIThierarchical information that uniquely identifies the LDAP DIT entry anddescribes a hierarchical position of the LDAP DIT entry in the LDAP DIT,each LDAP attribute-value pair including an attribute name and one ormore attribute values; providing a SCIM directory including a pluralityof SCIM resource entries that describe SCIM users and groups, each SCIMresource entry including a plurality of SCIM attributes including anexternalID and a resource type identifying the SCIM resource entry asbelonging to a user or a group, each SCIM attribute including a name andone or more values; migrating the plurality of LDAP DIT entries to theSCIM directory, including storing the LDAP DIT hierarchical informationin the SCIM directory by mapping LDAP user DNs and group DNs to SCIMuser externalIDs and group externalIDs, respectively; receiving, from anLDAP-based application over a network, an LDAP operation requestincluding an LDAP add request, an LDAP delete request, an LDAP modifyrequest, or an LDAP search request; processing the LDAP operationrequest; and returning an LDAP operation response to the LDAP-basedapplication over the network.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein saidprocessing the LDAP operation request includes: for the LDAP addrequest: extracting an LDAP DN value and a plurality of LDAPattribute-value pairs from the LDAP add request, converting theplurality of LDAP attribute-value pairs to respective SCIM attributes,creating a new SCIM entry in the SCIM directory, including storing theLDAP DN value in the externalID of the new SCIM entry, storing therespective SCIM attributes in the new SCIM entry, and setting theresource type of the new SCIM entry to user or group based on the useror group container present in the LDAP DN value or an objectclassdefined in the LDAP add request, converting the new SCIM entry to avirtual LDAP DIT entry, including converting the externalID of the newSCIM entry to a virtual LDAP DN, and converting the SCIM attributes ofthe new SCIM entry to virtual LDAP attribute-value pairs, and creatingan LDAP add response that includes the virtual LDAP DIT entry; andwherein said returning the LDAP operation response to the LDAP-basedapplication over the network includes: for the LDAP add request: sendingthe LDAP add response to the LDAP-based application over the network.11. The method of claim 9, wherein said processing the LDAP operationrequest includes: for the LDAP delete request: extracting an LDAP DNvalue from the LDAP delete request, searching the SCIM directory to finda SCIM entry having an externalID that matches the LDAP DN valueextracted from the LDAP delete request, deleting the matching SCIM entryfrom the SCIM directory, and creating an LDAP delete response; andwherein said returning the LDAP operation response to the LDAP-basedapplication over the network includes: for the LDAP delete request:sending the LDAP delete response to the LDAP-based application over thenetwork.
 12. The method of claim 9, wherein said processing the LDAPoperation request includes: for the LDAP modify request: extracting anLDAP DN value and a plurality of LDAP attribute-value pairs from theLDAP modify request, converting the plurality of LDAP attribute-valuepairs to respective SCIM attributes, searching the SCIM directory tofind a SCIM entry having an externalID that matches the LDAP DN valueextracted from the LDAP modify request, modifying the matching SCIMentry in the SCIM directory, including storing the respective SCIMattributes in the modified SCIM entry, converting the modified SCIMentry to a virtual LDAP DIT entry, including converting the externalIDof the modified SCIM entry to a virtual LDAP DN, and converting the SCIMattributes of the modified SCIM entry to virtual LDAP attribute-valuepairs, and creating an LDAP modify response that includes the virtualLDAP DIT entry; and wherein said returning the LDAP operation responseto the LDAP-based application over the network includes: for the LDAPmodify request: sending the LDAP modify response to the LDAP-basedapplication over the network.
 13. The method of claim 9, wherein saidprocessing the LDAP operation request includes: for the LDAP searchrequest: extracting a search base DN value and a search scope value fromthe LDAP search request, creating a SCIM search request including anexternalID value that is based on the search base DN value and thesearch scope value, searching the SCIM directory to find one or moreSCIM entries that match the SCIM search request, converting eachmatching SCIM entry to a virtual LDAP DIT entry, including convertingthe externalID of each matching SCIM entry to a virtual LDAP DN, andconverting the SCIM attributes of each matching SCIM entry to virtualLDAP attribute-value pairs, and creating an LDAP search response thatincludes each virtual LDAP DIT entry; and wherein said returning theLDAP operation response to the LDAP-based application over the networkincludes: for the LDAP search request: sending the LDAP search responseto the LDAP-based application over the network.
 14. The method of claim13, wherein said processing the LDAP operation request further includes:for the LDAP search request: extracting an LDAP filter from the LDAPsearch request, the LDAP filter including a plurality of LDAP filterattributes, converting the plurality of LDAP filter attributes to SCIMfilter attributes, creating a SCIM filter based on the SCIM filterattributes, and adding the SCIM filter to the SCIM search request. 15.The method of claim 14, wherein said processing the LDAP operationrequest further includes: for the LDAP search request: analyzing theLDAP filter to determine whether a user object class or a group objectclass is present, if a user object class is present in the LDAP filter,then the SCIM directory is searched against a users endpoint, if a groupobject class is present in the LDAP filter, then the SCIM directory issearched against a groups endpoint, and if neither a user object classor a group object class is present in the LDAP filter, then SCIMsearches are issued against both the users and the groups endpoints, ifthe search scope value is base: setting the externalID value of the SCIMfilter such that the externalID value is equal to the search base DNvalue, if the search scope value is one level: setting the externalIDvalue of the SCIM filter such that the externalID value contains thesearch base DN value, scanning the externalID value of each matchingSCIM entry, and converting only those matching SCIM entries having oneRelative Distinguished Name (RDN) prefixed before the search base DNvalue to a virtual LDAP DIT entry, and if the search scope value issubtree: setting the externalID value of the SCIM filter such that theexternalID value contains the search base DN value.
 16. A system,comprising: a memory; and a processor, coupled to the memory and anetwork, configured to hierarchically process LDAP (LightweightDirectory Access Protocol) operations against a SCIM (System forCross-domain Identity Management) directory, the processing including:providing an LDAP Directory Information Tree (DIT) including a pluralityof LDAP DIT entries that describe LDAP containers, users and groups,each LDAP DIT entry including a Distinguished Name (DN) and a pluralityof LDAP attribute-value pairs, the DN providing LDAP DIT hierarchicalinformation that uniquely identifies the LDAP DIT entry and describes ahierarchical position of the LDAP DIT entry in the LDAP DIT, each LDAPattribute-value pair including an attribute name and one or moreattribute values, providing a SCIM directory including a plurality ofSCIM resource entries that describe SCIM users and groups, each SCIMresource entry including a plurality of SCIM attributes including anexternalID and a resource type identifying the SCIM resource entry asbelonging to a user or a group, each SCIM attribute including a name andone or more values, migrating the plurality of LDAP DIT entries to theSCIM directory, including storing the LDAP DIT hierarchical informationin the SCIM directory by mapping LDAP user DNs and group DNs to SCIMuser externalIDs and group externalIDs, respectively, receiving, from anLDAP-based application over the network, an LDAP operation requestincluding an LDAP add request, an LDAP delete request, an LDAP modifyrequest, or an LDAP search request, processing the LDAP operationrequest, and returning an LDAP operation response to the LDAP-basedapplication over the network.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein saidprocessing the LDAP operation request includes: for the LDAP addrequest: extracting an LDAP DN value and a plurality of LDAPattribute-value pairs from the LDAP add request, converting theplurality of LDAP attribute-value pairs to respective SCIM attributes,creating a new SCIM entry in the SCIM directory, including storing theLDAP DN value in the externalID of the new SCIM entry, storing therespective SCIM attributes in the new SCIM entry, and setting theresource type of the new SCIM entry to user or group based on the useror group container present in the LDAP DN value or an objectclassdefined in the LDAP add request, converting the new SCIM entry to avirtual LDAP DIT entry, including converting the externalID of the newSCIM entry to a virtual LDAP DN, and converting the SCIM attributes ofthe new SCIM entry to virtual LDAP attribute-value pairs, and creatingan LDAP add response that includes the virtual LDAP DIT entry; for theLDAP delete request: extracting an LDAP DN value from the LDAP deleterequest, searching the SCIM directory to find a SCIM entry having anexternalID that matches the LDAP DN value extracted from the LDAP deleterequest, deleting the matching SCIM entry from the SCIM directory, andcreating an LDAP delete response; and for the LDAP modify request:extracting an LDAP DN value and a plurality of LDAP attribute-valuepairs from the LDAP modify request, converting the plurality of LDAPattribute-value pairs to respective SCIM attributes, searching the SCIMdirectory to find a SCIM entry having an externalID that matches theLDAP DN value extracted from the LDAP modify request, modifying thematching SCIM entry in the SCIM directory, including storing therespective SCIM attributes in the modified SCIM entry, converting themodified SCIM entry to a virtual LDAP DIT entry, including convertingthe externalID of the modified SCIM entry to a virtual LDAP DN, andconverting the SCIM attributes of the modified SCIM entry to virtualLDAP attribute-value pairs, and creating an LDAP modify response thatincludes the virtual LDAP DIT entry; and wherein said returning the LDAPoperation response to the LDAP-based application over the networkincludes: for the LDAP add request: sending the LDAP add response to theLDAP-based application over the network; and for the LDAP deleterequest: sending the LDAP delete response to the LDAP-based applicationover the network; and for the LDAP modify request: sending the LDAPmodify response to the LDAP-based application over the network.
 18. Thesystem of claim 16, wherein said processing the LDAP operation requestincludes: for the LDAP search request: extracting a search base DN valueand a search scope value from the LDAP search request, creating a SCIMsearch request including an externalID value that is based on the searchbase DN value and the search scope value, searching the SCIM directoryto find one or more SCIM entries that match the SCIM search request,converting each matching SCIM entry to a virtual LDAP DIT entry,including converting the externalID of each matching SCIM entry to avirtual LDAP DN, and converting the SCIM attributes of each matchingSCIM entry to virtual LDAP attribute-value pairs, and creating an LDAPsearch response that includes each virtual LDAP DIT entry; and whereinsaid returning the LDAP operation response to the LDAP-based applicationover the network includes: for the LDAP search request: sending the LDAPsearch response to the LDAP-based application over the network.
 19. Thesystem of claim 18, wherein said processing the LDAP operation requestfurther includes: for the LDAP search request: extracting an LDAP filterfrom the LDAP search request, the LDAP filter including a plurality ofLDAP filter attributes, converting the plurality of LDAP filterattributes to SCIM filter attributes, creating a SCIM filter based onthe SCIM filter attributes, and adding the SCIM filter to the SCIMsearch request.
 20. The system of claim 19, wherein said processing theLDAP operation request further includes: for the LDAP search request:analyzing the LDAP filter to determine whether a user object class or agroup object class is present, if a user object class is present in theLDAP filter, then the SCIM directory is searched against a usersendpoint, if a group object class is present in the LDAP filter, thenthe SCIM directory is searched against a groups endpoint, and if neithera user object class or a group object class is present in the LDAPfilter, then SCIM searches are issued against both the users and thegroups endpoints, if the search scope value is base: setting theexternalID value of the SCIM filter such that the externalID value isequal to the search base DN value, if the search scope value is onelevel: setting the externalID value of the SCIM filter such that theexternalID value contains the search base DN value, scanning theexternalID value of each matching SCIM entry, and converting only thosematching SCIM entries having one Relative Distinguished Name (RDN)prefixed before the search base DN value to a virtual LDAP DIT entry,and if the search scope value is subtree: setting the externalID valueof the SCIM filter such that the externalID value contains the searchbase DN value.